Abstract
To meet electricity production and transportation, cooking, agricultural-field clearance for crop-rotation, we are consuming fossil fuels through combustion and burning the biomass. When these fuels are burnt, depending on fuel-type, combustion efficiency, and moisture content in the fuel, it releases a lot of aerosols (aka particulate matter), CO2, CH4, SO2, and other gaseous species. With the rise in the global population, the cumulative effect of anthropogenic activities is raising the level of pollutants in the atmosphere and also in the other components of the environment in general. Natural green barriers (forests) intake CO2 and a major source of O2 also do play a crucial role in adsorbing particulate matter, thereby reducing ambient PM levels. Deforestation, owing to unprecedented urbanization, is the other major factor of increasing greenhouse gas levels. Furthermore, industrial emissions from fertilizers, cement production, coal mining activities, and oil extraction generate a huge amount of greenhouse gases and toxic products. Also, landfills occupied with garbage is a potential source of greenhouse gases, viz. CO2 and CH4. Ambient records on rising levels of greenhouse gases and particulate matter in the last couple of decades is an alarming situation and urge for initiatives towards effective interventions to mitigate the air pollution for better planetary health and its sustainability. In this chapter, we have discussed greenhouse gases emissions from biomass burning (BB) focusing mainly on long-term global records in a concise manner. Some of the “initiatives to tackle air pollution” and “recommendations” are also provided for future interventions and mitigation policy makers.
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Acknowledgments
Analyses and visualizations used in this study were produced with the Giovanni online data system, developed and maintained by the NASA GES DISC. Above showed Fig. 8.15 has been extracted from Fig. 4 of Prosperi et al. 2020 in climatic change (cited in this study) and we acknowledge all the authors for the same.
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Sharma, A., Rajput, P. (2022). Role of Biomass Burning in Greenhouse Gases Emission. In: Sonwani, S., Saxena, P. (eds) Greenhouse Gases: Sources, Sinks and Mitigation. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-4482-5_8
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