Air Pollution and the Changing Climate

Air Pollution & the Changing Climate
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Air Pollution & the Changing Climate
The topic of air pollution and climate change has received widespread exploration by diverse researchers in the past decades. Continued investigation of the two aspects reveals they are interrelated, amplifying the other in various magnitudes. Lutgens et al. (2019) indicate that air pollutants in the environment significantly impact the changing climatic patterns in the contemporary era. The authors also illustrate that climate change seriously affects air pollution. Burney et al. (2022) support this observation in their recent research article about anthropogenic emissions and climate effects. A review of chapters 13 and 14 of the book by Lutgens et al. (2019) further unearths fundamental lessons about air pollution and climate change. It confirms that air pollution and climate change have a bidirectional relationship where one component affects or exacerbates the other.
Air pollution arises from diverse human-made and natural factors. For instance, in chapter 13, Lutgens et al. (2019) discuss the different sources of air pollution. The authors acknowledge that natural occurrences such as storm winds have been sweeping pollutants for ages, explaining the recognition of why air is never clean. The authors also note the contributions of climate change-induced activities, such as volcanic eruptions, in depositing large volumes of fine debris and gases into the environment leading to pollution in chapter 14 (Lutgens et al., 2019). Other than the natural source, humans have been triggering air pollution in diverse ways, ranging from farming to industrialization. The rise of manufacturing industries and mills emerges as one of the leading causes of air pollution and, in extension, climate change due to the magnitude of gases released into the atmosphere. Burney et al. (2022) acknowledge this concern by highlighting the role played by developed nations in contaminating the environment. Lutgens et al. (2019) emphasize that cities such as London demonstrate how human activities worsen urban pollution, directly contributing to the looming climate change and associated ramifications.
The two sources of pollution, natural and human-made, release different types of pollutants with far-reaching consequences on the climate. According to Burney et al. (2022), the continued release of emissions into the atmosphere leads to climatic patterns interferences. This outcome occurs due to the presence of particles that interfere with the sensitive atmospheric balance. Lutgens et al. (2019) associate these changes with the numerous air pollutants that range from sulphur dioxide and particulate matter to acidic chemicals and smog. While Chapter 13 highlights the pollutants humans constantly release into the environment through routine activities, chapter 14 demonstrates how specific chemicals alter the atmosphere and trigger climate change (Lutgens et al., 2019). For instance, Lutgens et al. (2019) reveal the direct impact of greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide. The authors indicate that these gases create a greenhouse effect by trapping heat, leading to warmer environmental conditions. This condition has led to the rise of global warming, which directly leads to climate change.
Chapter 14 underscores the concerning influence of aerosols released in the atmosphere on climate change. According to Lutgens et al. (2019), human activities are the leading cause of depositing these substances in the environment. The chapter flags sulphur dioxide from fossil fuel combustion and vegetation burning as the primary culprits. However, natural sources like volcanoes, dust storms, and wildfires release similar pollutants (Lutgens et al., 2019). These substances affect the climate by creating dense and reflective clouds that reflect sun rays into space. They also lead to heat-trapping mechanisms around the Earth’s atmosphere (Lutgens et al., 2019). As a result, such outcomes gradually but significantly impact climatic changes.
Trends reveal that air pollution has been an ongoing process for decades. For instance, a graphical representation illustrates the variations of contaminants in the United States from 1900 to 2014 (Lutgens et al., 2019). Figure 1 focuses on three primary pollutants, nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide, and volatile organic compounds. The trends depicted by the graph show marked periods of increase in pollution and sudden declines. According to Lutgens et al. (2019), although various human activit...