{"id":250056,"date":"2020-03-26T19:47:58","date_gmt":"2020-03-26T23:47:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=250056"},"modified":"2020-03-26T19:47:58","modified_gmt":"2020-03-26T23:47:58","slug":"paris-falls-silent-sound-maps-show-impact-of-confinement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/03\/26\/paris-falls-silent-sound-maps-show-impact-of-confinement\/","title":{"rendered":"Paris falls silent: Sound maps show impact of confinement"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Some 150 monitoring stations around the Ile-de-France \u2014 the name given to Paris and its suburbs \u2014 have recorded an \u201cunusual silence\u201d since the virus prevention lockdown officially began March 17. (Pexels photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

PARIS \u2014 What’s that sound beneath the Eiffel Tower? It’s silence \u2014 a rare phenomenon in big cities like Paris, but one that’s increasingly common now that tourism is banned and millions of people in and around the French capital are confined at home.<\/p>\n

Some 150 monitoring stations around the Ile-de-France \u2014 the name given to Paris and its suburbs \u2014 have recorded an \u201cunusual silence\u201d since the virus prevention lockdown officially began March 17.<\/p>\n

The agency that measures sound pollution in the region, Bruitparif, released before-and-after maps Thursday showing the drop in decibels.<\/p>\n

It’s especially notable around Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports, thanks to the grounding of most flights. And alongside highways, whose traffic has slowed to a trickle as workers stay home. And around neighbourhoods packed with night clubs, which are now shuttered to keep people at a safe social distance and keep the virus at bay.<\/p>\n

Bruitparif noted a \u201cvery sharp drop in noise emissions of anthropogenic origin\u201d \u2014 related to human activity \u2014 caused by a \u201cdrastic reduction in road, air and even rail traffic, the suspension of construction sites and the closure of many activities and festive places.\u201d<\/p>\n

French authorities are struggling to slow the spread of the virus, which has claimed more than 1,300 lives around France and prompted confinement measures that are threatening jobs and pummeling the economy.<\/p>\n

But they have also reduced air and sound pollution in one of Europe’s most densely populated cities.<\/p>\n

The maps show that even in the centre of Paris, the decibel levels are down to what you’d normally see in suburban parkland. Some streets saw a 90% drop in sound levels over the past week. And Bruitparif says zones considered as facing \u201cexcessive noise have practically disappeared, notably at night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, there is one sound that Parisians are hearing a lot more of lately: Birdsong.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PARIS \u2014 What’s that sound beneath the Eiffel Tower? It’s silence \u2014 a rare phenomenon in big cities like Paris, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":250057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-250056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250056"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":250058,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250056\/revisions\/250058"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}