CONSEQUENCES OF AIR POLLUTION
Over the years there has been an enormous change in earth’s climate. In the last 650,000 years there have been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat. The abrupt end of the last ice age about 7,000 years ago marked the beginning of the modern climate era.
Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions, or in the time variation of weather within the context of longer-term average conditions. Climate change can be caused due to various factors in which the main contributing factor is air pollution.
Human activities may add to climate change by causing changes in Earth’s atmosphere. Such activities primarily change the amounts of greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, N2O and the halocarbons, a group of gases containing fluorine, chlorine and bromine linked to carbon), aerosols (small particles), and cloudiness in the atmosphere. Burning of fossil fuels is the biggest contributor to atmospheric change and hence the climate shift. It releases carbon dioxide, water vapor and other gases to the atmosphere. Significant accretions in all of these gases have occurred in the present industrial age because most of these gases accumulate in the atmosphere, causing gradual increase in concentrations with time.
Atmospheric scientist Christine Wiedinmyer first went to Ghana in 2011 to investigate air pollution produced by burning different materials — from crop stubble to coal used in stoves — she noticed an unexpected potential source: burning piles of trash.
Almost 40 to 50 percent of carbon is present in the garbage around the world which means that when it is burnt, carbon dioxide is emitted in large amounts which contributes to the disruptive climate shift. On the other hand the carbon dioxide emitted from cars and other vehicles is just 5 %. Thus it is evident from this fact that trash burning is the root cause and a much bigger challenge to be dealt with.
“Scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is unequivocal.”
-(Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change)
