It is an undeniable fact that life on the planet, in whatever form of metabolism we speak of, is a direct consequence of nature and its basic laws. The mutual connection of different geographical spheres caused the emergence and development of life in the form of different species. Any imbalance of nature, or just one of its segments, used to make numerous changes in the kingdom of flora and fauna. Numerous extinctions, especially of the animal world, are a direct consequence of changes in the state and some qualities and quantities in nature.
The most severe forms of change are the extinctions that have occurred on Earth. They are most often related to changes in the atmosphere that occurred due to various reasons. It is mostly about the cycles that occur on the planet (climate changes), but the most famous extinction at the end of the Mesozoic is the one that occurred as a result of an asteroid impact and increased volcanic activity. Dinosaurs then disappeared from the planet, and conditions in nature allowed smaller organisms to survive and mammals - mammals to develop.
And man is a consequence of natural qualities. Through the metabolic past, there were also visually noticeable changes. Especially interesting is the change in skin color, shape and color of hair or the appearance of all blue-eyed people in the Baltic Sea area after the great melting of the ice. The lack of solar radiation caused the quantity of melanin to change. Some mammals have changed their basic habitat for food, and ended up in water, such as whales and dolphins. Our problem arises the moment we change our natural environment on a larger scale.
Climate change as an important topic
Today's atmosphere, its composition and processes, have made it possible for eight billion of us to live on planet Earth. Although we only breathe oxygen, nitrogen, CO2, which is the basis of photosynthesis, ozone, which protects us from UV rays, water vapor, which participates in the water cycle in nature, and numerous dust particles (particulate matter, PM), which can form a cloud, are of great importance. It is a misconception that these particles are basically bad for our life. Certainly, the lack of clouds and precipitation on Earth would make life of this form impossible.
Air pollution occurs when, instead of the normal and expected suspended particles in the atmosphere, which we call aerosols (PM), "aeropollutants" appear. These are all those particles that contain the chemical basis for the formation of some compounds that would potentially threaten life on Earth. We should certainly not forget that everything in nature is connected, and atmospheric pollution very quickly leads to contamination of the hydrosphere, the pedosphere (soil) from which we feed, and of course all possible flora and fauna that together with humans form an ecosystem. "Food chain" is a special biogeographic topic that clearly speaks about the connection of all segments of nature.
Climate change is an extremely important topic that has occupied many laymen and scientists in the past period. It is clear that any potential change is partly a danger to human life, but one should be aware that climate changes are a cyclical period that occurred in the geological past without any human presence. Today, we are living in the interglacial period, and it is a normal natural phenomenon to increase the presence of CO2 in the atmosphere. Of course, humans partly influence it, but even without his action, the same thing would have happened. This is the reason why we are "afraid" of an increase in the water level of the world's oceans, and we forget that we are essentially the most polluting of the local environment and the geographical space in which we live.
The air is not only polluted in winter
It is a misconception that air pollution is present only in winter. There are two main reasons why this is considered so. The first is certainly the increased use of energy sources and the emission of various gases into the atmosphere, and the second reason is the visual visibility of pollution in winter. The Siberian anticyclone, the wind that affects the weather in this area in winter, brings some interesting things. This wind "presses" the air downward and does not allow convection (vertical flow of air) and keeps fog in the valleys. He is the culprit of the "thermal inversion", the phenomenon when the mountain is warmer than the valley because the fog in the valley does not allow the Sun's radiation. It is precisely this lack of vertical air movement that creates a problem for us in the winter.
Basins generally have a problem and do not have any special advection (horizontal air flow). Such a phenomenon prevents aeration and keeps everything that "the basin produced" in the basin. During the rest of the year, the vertical movement of the air carries everything to heights where the wind can blow it. The Siberian anticyclone does not allow that.
Ignorance of chemical processes ruined London when people died from the effects of zinc, which in those quantities in the atmosphere was extremely deadly. In our basins, a special problem is the emission of SO2, which in contact with H2O forms corrosive acids. They are very lethal to the respiratory organs in humans. The smallest pollution problem is the stench and very poor visibility. Smog (smoke + fog) is very harmful from many aspects. The worst thing is always the biochemical pollution that "kills" us in the long run.
Fog in the valleys is a natural process
It should be emphasized that the fog in the basins would have formed even without the presence of man. It is a natural process that occurs in the winter period of the year as a result of the action of anticyclone. What man is "guilty" of is the appearance of air pollutants that would not appear in the atmosphere if there were no traffic, urbanization or industrialization that was not made according to a plan that would not devastate nature. The basic definition of geoecology is that "it studies the relationship between man and nature and the possibility of their coexistence". In essence, man depends on nature, not the other way around. Nature will quickly adapt to any change, and will we reach it?
The biggest problem for people is PM particles, which, of different sizes and compositions, cause numerous problems in human health. Given their size, they have no problem entering the body and causing numerous diseases - from cardiovascular to respiratory. It is clear that certain amounts of lead, arsenic, nickel, cadmium, cesium, etc., along with the previously mentioned corrosive acids, have a negative impact on human health. A person breathes approximately 23.000 times a day or even 8,5 million times a year. These particles, due to their size, have no problem entering the pores of the skin (the skin is the largest respiratory organ) or along the hair shaft. The fact that we only protect our mouth and nose so that we "don't smell" does not mean that we have protected ourselves from pollution.
Man cannot influence natural processes. They happen regardless of whether it is a volcanic eruption, an earthquake or an anticyclone from Siberia. Meteorological phenomena as a consequence of the geophysical dynamics of the atmosphere are not in "our domain", but man should definitely think about how he devastates nature and the environment. Nature, or rather the planet, will quickly and easily accommodate, but our metabolism will certainly not. As things currently stand, homo sapiens is a victim of his own irrational actions. The beginning of industry could not know the negative consequences of the same, nor could Antoine Lavoisier explain chemical processes at the end of the XNUMXth century, but today's science clearly knows where we are wrong.
The atmosphere will be easy without us, but we can't do without it (in this form).
The author is a professor of geography
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