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Published in:
2021 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
Air Pollution and Climate Change: Sustainability, Restoration, and Ethical Implications
Authors : Jiaying Chen, Mie Jul Dahlin, Linnea Luuppala, David Bickford, Lina Boljka, Vanessa Burns, Matthew Stanley Johnson
Published in: Air Pollution Sources, Statistics and Health Effects
Publisher: Springer US
Excerpt
Adaptation
An adaptation
is an adjustment made in response to an actual or expected climate that moderates or avoids harmful impacts. Adaptation can be divided into incremental and transformational actions. Incremental adaptation refers to relatively small changes and actions that affect a system while maintaining its integrity, while transformational adaptation includes changes and actions that affect the fundamental attributes of a system [
10].
Air Pollution
Air pollution
is “a mix of particles and gases that can reach harmful concentrations both outside and indoors” [
12]. Determining the harmfulness of substances is not always straightforward. For example, some substances that are toxic have been found to have beneficial effects in low quantities [
13], while for others there may be no safe dose. A pertinent example is that carbon dioxide is a natural part of the atmosphere and is exchanged with the biosphere via photosynthesis thus fertilizing plants but clearly there could be too much of a good thing, as excessive amounts of CO
2 have a clear negative impact on the biosphere through climate change. Plants require fixed nitrogen, and some is produced naturally by lightning, depositing to the surface as nitrate from nitric acid, one cause of acid rain [
5]. In small amounts it is a good thing and clearly damaging in large amounts. Thus the classification of a given substance as pollution depends on context.
Biosphere
The biosphere
is the global aggregate of all ecological systems including all living beings and their interrelationships with each other and with the atmosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere.
Conference of the Parties (COP)
The
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an international treaty signed and put into action in 1994. The convention’s principle goal is to prevent negative impacts to society from anthropogenic climate change. It implements greenhouse gas emission limits but has no enforcement capacity. The Conference of the Parties (COP) consists of countries that are part of the United Nations Framework Convention. The COP is the supreme decision-making body in the Convention.
Climate Hazards
According to the
2014 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, climate hazards are “climate-related physical events or trends or their physical impacts” [
3]. Climate hazards are different from natural hazards, which include earthquakes, pandemics, and weather-related disasters. Weather-related disasters include drought, wildfires, floods, tropical cyclones, and severe storms [
10].
Ecological Restoration
“Ecological restoration
is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed” [
64].
Ecological Justice
Considerations of
justice that relate to human relationships with other species and ecosystems.
Environmental Ethics
A branch of philosophy that
studies human interaction with the natural world including the moral relationship between humans and natural entities including the moral status of such entities.
Exposure
In the context of climate change, exposure
is additional risk and is defined as “the presence of people, livelihoods, species or ecosystems, environmental functions, services, and resources, infrastructure, or economic, social, or cultural assets in places and settings that could be adversely affected” [
10].
Global Justice
Considerations of justice
that take collective human actions and relationships into account on a global level.
Intergenerational Justice
Considerations of justice that
reflect the moral relationship between currently living people and future generations.
Mitigation
Climate change mitigation
comprises actions that limit anthropogenic climate change. It includes reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). In the case of CO
2, this includes renewable energy, reforestation, land use changes, carbon capture and storage (CCS), and direct air capture (DAC).
Preservation
A conservation
strategy that attempts to protect nonhuman species including their habitats.
Resilience
Resilience
is the capacity of social, economic, and environmental systems to respond to hazardous events, trends, or disturbances from climate change [
10].
Thermohaline Circulation
Ocean circulation,
and especially the deepwater formation that sequesters dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) from the surface ocean, is driven by density. The density of seawater is controlled by its temperature (“thermo-”) and its salinity (“haline,” which refers to mineral sodium chloride called halite). Salinity can be defined as a mass fraction, grams of dissolved salts per kg seawater [
5]. Seawater is typically around 35 g/kg, and values can range from rainwater, ca. 20 mg/kg, to the Dead Sea, >200 g/kg. The amount of salt in the oceans is fixed; thus, salinity can only be changed by removal or addition of freshwater, such as by evaporation or addition of glacial meltwater [
5].
Vulnerability
In the context of
climate change, vulnerability is the inability of social, economic, and environmental systems to persist and thrive in a changed environment, including “sensitivity or susceptibility to harm and lack of capacity to cope and adapt” [
4]. The assessment of vulnerability is a key element of describing current and future climate risks [
10]. The main goal of climate change adaptation is to reduce vulnerability [
19].