It’s happening all around the world. Places like India has seen a remarkable drop in pollution levels. People are able to see Himalayas for the first time from their homes near by. Everest gets a break from the climbers.

And even Ganges is showing levels of purity never seen before : https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/travel/destinations/gang... [..] When the ancient Yamuna River in Delhi has reached a remarkable level of purity due to the absence of industrial pollutants in the last many days of India-wide lockdown, how can River Ganga show its sparkling clear waters to the nation?

Well, news has it that Ganga waters at Rishikesh and Haridwar have become very clean according to the observation made by BD Joshi, Environmental Scientist and Ex-professor at the Gurukul Kangri University. According to Joshi, it is after a long time that Ganga water has become good for achaman (ritual sipping) in Haridwar. Joshi also added that the cause behind cleaner Ganga water is a 500 per cent decrease in total dissolved solid (TDS), industrial effluent, dharmashalas, sewage from hotels and lodges. [..]

Perhaps this is the solution when pollution markers reach a certain threshold. Shut down everything for a month.

or treat your effluent, or avoid it in the first place? Pretty sure it would cost less than shutting everything down...

We would have done it already, no? Perhaps only punitive measures work. Pollution and environmental damage cannot be quantified ...it is invisible and we assume that it is a function of time.

But it isn’t..it is because of consumption and population growth(which leads to more consumption)

> We would have done it already, no?

No, lots of countries had a problem with water pollution, including the US (Tom Lehrer wrote a satire song in '65 on that issue[1]), and then they implemented measures to improve it. India can and will do the same, I'm sure.

[1] https://youtu.be/nz_-KNNl-no?t=18

Dramatically raise prices for travel, add lottery’s etc.

> Everest gets a break from the climbers.

As there's no wildlife to damage on Everest, I don't see a big problem with it being crushed by tourists.

There is life everywhere (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremophile#Classifications) including in boiling water, so why would there be no wildlife on Everest?

A short search gave me https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euophrys_omnisuperstes:

”the Himalayan jumping spider, is a small jumping spider that lives at elevations of up to 6,700 m (22,000 ft) in the Himalayas, including Mount Everest, making it a candidate for the highest known permanent resident on Earth“

(That’s above the base camps on Everest)

If I meant there was absolutely no life on Everest, I would have written "absolutely no life" or "sterile".

My point stands.