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Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate in the Anthropocene

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Abstract

The effects of human activities are increasingly overwhelming the geologic, biological and chemical processes that drive changes in the abundance of trace and greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere and Earth System behavior. Thus, mankind has opened a new geological epoch or age – the Anthropocene. This development is driven by the strong population increase which may result in ten billion people by 2100. With this population increase, human demands for food and animal protein in particular, clean water, natural resources and nutrients such as fixed nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), land and energy will continue to increase strongly. It is also hypothesized that human enterprise is responsible for the sixth mass species extinction. Further, releases of gases such as sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitric oxide (NO) and chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) into the atmosphere are several times higher than natural emissions. CFCs give rise to highly active radicals in the stratosphere which destroy ozone (O3) by catalytic reactions. However, CFC emissions have been drastically reduced and stratospheric O3 concentrations are increasing. In contrast, concentrations of GHGs such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) continue to increase and are now well above the pre-industrial levels as increasing human demand for energy is met by burning fossil fuels. As a consequence, land and ocean temperatures are increasing, glaciers are melting and sea levels are rising. Strong reductions, in particular, of the anthropogenic CO2 emissions are needed to minimize risks of future warming and its consequences as CO2 is the major GHG with part of it having a long atmospheric residence time. However, CO2 emissions continue to increase even during the periods of global economic crises and reduced industrial activities. Thus, geoengineering or climate engineering techniques are discussed to cool Earth indirectly by removing CO2 from the atmosphere or directly by increasing backscattering of solar radiation into space. For example, injecting sulfur (S) into the stratosphere has been proposed as sulfate particles reflect sunlight but many issues remain unresolved. Thus, a strong reduction in anthropogenic CO2 emissions is needed to mitigate climate change.

Keywords

Anthropocene Atmospheric chemistry Mitigating climate change Greenhouse gases Climate engineering Energy production Ozone layer Black carbon Chlorofluorocarbons Methane Nitrous oxide Global biogeochemical cycles Renewable energy Nuclear energy Carbon capture and storage Solar radiation management 

Abbreviations

BNF

biological N fixation

BC

black carbon

C

carbon

CCS

carbon capture and storage

CO2

carbon dioxide

CDR

carbon dioxide removal

CO

carbon monoxide

CFC

chlorofluorocarbon

GHGs

greenhouse gases

CH4

methane

EJ

exajoules

NPP

net primary production

NO3−

nitrate

N

nitrogen

N2O

nitrous oxide

OC

organic carbon

O3

ozone

ppm

parts per million

P

phosphorus

Pg

petagrams

S

sulfur

SRM

solar radiation management

SO2

sulfur dioxide

Tg

teragrams

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© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Global Soil ForumIASS Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies e.V.PotsdamGermany
  2. 2.Department of Atmospheric ChemistryMax-Planck-Institute for ChemistryMainzGermany
  3. 3.Carbon Management and Sequestration CenterThe Ohio State UniversityColumbusUSA
  4. 4.IASS Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies e.V.PotsdamGermany

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