Diccionario politécnico Beigbeder
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There is a recognition that Man's local activities can have a global impact, possibly irreversible, on the atmosphere with political repercussions that have raised awareness of the importance of the chemistry of Earth's atmosphere. As a current 'Hot topic' it behoves scientists, and perhaps even the educated layman, to have an understanding of atmospheric chemistry and more and more universities now offer courses on this subject. Global warming and climate change are matters of vital concern to humanity, and ones for which the scientific basis is now almost universally accepted. Political will to bring about the necessary changes are another matter, because the conflicting short-term expediencies often seem more attractive to the ill-informed. Only chemists can really possess the contextual knowledge to inform political decision making, and even they need more background than an ordinary classical chemistry course provides. Other pollution issues (for example, smoke and fog from the burning of fossil fuel, photochemical smog ('Los Angeles smog'), acid rain, urban air, ozone depletion and ozone holes) again depend for their control on policy makers, and such people need good and reliable scientific guidance. These 'environmental' topics can only be understood in relation to 'natural' air chemistry - and, for Earth even that is determined by living organisms. This book provides readers at the undergraduate level with a basic knowledge of the chemistry of Earth's atmosphere, and an understanding of the role that chemical transformations play in this vital part of our environment. The composition of the 'natural' atmosphere (both troposphere and stratosphere) is described in terms of the physical and chemical cycles that govern the behaviour of the major and the many minor species present, and considers the atmospheric lifetimes of those species. An extension of these ideas leads to a discussion of the impacts of Man's activities on the atmosphere, and thus to an understanding of some of the most important environmental 'issues' of our time. One thread of the book explains that living organisms alter the composition and pressures in the atmosphere, modify temperatures, and change the intensity and wavelength distribution of light arriving from the Sun. Meanwhile, the evolution and growth of the living organisms has benefitted from these very same environmental conditions. Man, one species of those living organisms, has the ability to interfere with the feedbacks that seem to have maintained the atmosphere as a hospitable environment for life for more than 3.5 billion years. This book will help chemists to understand the background to the problems, and it will also help non-specialist chemists to gain the knowledge that might inform measures taken to alleviate the impacts.
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