Global Effects of Environmental Pollution: A Symposium Organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science Held in Dallas, Texas, Dec

ISBN-13: 9789401032926 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 232 str.

S.F. Singer

Opis

The Symposium on the Global Effects of Environmental Pollution has performed an important task; it has helped to determine the world-wide impact of certain types of local pollution and has uncovered certain unsuspected effects that might hold dan gerous implications for the future. This Symposium should help to make the world aware of a crisis that is becoming more ominous and that involves the developing as well as the developed countries - the crisis of the human environment. The causes of this crisis are not difficult to discern. There has been an unprecedented increase in the world's population, an ever-increasing rate of urbanization, and in many countries, a continuous process of industrialization. Essentially, advancing technology has made it possible for a minority of mankind to achieve affluence and holds out hope for improving the well-being of the great majority. But, because it has not been integrated into the natural environment, this very technology - in industry, in agriculture or in transport - is having many undesir able and potentially catastrophic consequences. Our air, our water and our soil are in grave danger. Many species of animal and plant life have become extinct or are facing extinction. The loss to mankind is grave and even the future oflife on earth may be in danger. The challenge is to find ways of repairing the harm already done and to prevent further harm."

Spis treści

I/Chemical Balance of Gases in the Earth’s Atmosphere.- The Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide Balance in the Earth’s Atmosphere.- Impact of Land and Sea Pollution on the Chemical Stability of the Atmosphere.- The Dependence of Atmospheric Temperature on the Concentration of Carbon Dioxide.- Exchange of CO2 Between Atmosphere and Sea Water: Possible Enzymatic Control of the Rate.- The Global Balance of Carbon Monoxide.- Gaseous Atmospheric Pollutants from Urban and Natural Sources.- II /Nitrogen Compounds in Soil, Water, Atmosphere and Precipitation.- Threats to the Integrity of the Nitrogen Cycle: Nitrogen Compounds in Soil, Water, Atmosphere and Precipitation.- The Dynamics of Nitrogen Transformations in the Soil.- Nitrogen Compounds Used in Crop Production.- Man-Induced Eutrophication of Lakes.- III/Effects of Atmospheric Pollution on Climate.- Climatic Effects of Atmospheric Pollution.- A Preliminary Evaluation of Atmospheric Pollution as a Cause of the Global Temperature Fluctuation of the Past Century.- Cloudiness and the Radiative, Convective Equilibrium.- The Inadvertent Modification of the Atmosphere by Air Pollution.- IV/Worldwide Ocean Pollution by Toxic Wastes.- The Chemical Invasion of the Oceans by Man.- Changes in the Chemistry of the Oceans: The Pattern of Effects.- Biological Implications of Global Marine Pollution.- Interactions Between Oceans and Terrestrial Ecosystems.- Some Unsolved Problems: A Panel Discussion.- Epilogue.- About the Authors.- Index of Names.- Index of Subjectsr.