Villanyi V. (Ed.) Air Pollution

InTech, 2010. — 370 p. — ISBN: 9789533071435Anthropogenic air pollution constitutes of many substances. Greenhouse gases absorb and reflect some of the infrared parts of solar radiation reflected from the earth surface thus causing the troposphere to be warmer. Among others, these substances are carbone-dioxide, water vapour, hydrogen oxides, nitrogen-oxides and methane. Beyond causing warming, most of these gases are poisonous to the Earth’s biosphere. Besides greenhouse gases, there are a few more poisonous substances which have anthropogenic sources. Heavy metals, aromatic hydrocarbones, and dust are for example very harmful air pollutants. The problem of air pollution is very complex, and apparently this is the base of climate change on our globe. Air pollutants are also polluting the ground, waters and plantal surfaces by subsidance and aggregation.
Air pollution, as well as global warming, causes considerable biomass losses both in natural vegetations and in cultivated plants. Besides, these changes cause decrease in the quality of crops, and changes in biodiversity and species composition of natural vegetations. Climate change principally damages plant organisms, but it directly effects every member of the food chain harming animals and human beings as well.
Although the climate of the Earth is continually changing from the very beginning, anthropogenic effects, the pollution of the air by combustion and industrial activities make it change so quickly that the adaptation is very difficult for all living organisms. Researcher’s role is to make this adaptation easier, to prepare humankind for new circumstances and challenges, to trace and predict the effects and, if possible, even decrease the harmfulness of these changes. In this book we provide an interdisciplinary collection of new studies and findings on the score of air pollution.
The first part consists of review-like studies, the second part contains writings that show the results of some new researches and gives a few case studies. Eventually, some astonishing new scientific innovations are introduced. For the reader we wish a pleasant and gainful time while getting acquainted with these interesting works.