Effects of Aerosols on Climate, Human Health, and Plant and Mitigation Strategies

Abstract

With the increasing global air pollution, aerosols have received increased attention from researchers. Aerosols have been shown to have critical impacts on Earth’s climate, human health, and plant photosynthesis. In this context, this paper briefly introduces the composition of aerosols, the effects on Earth, and mitigation strategies. Aerosols scatter sunlight, as well as trap heat in the atmosphere, affecting Earth’s surface temperatures and reducing visibility. Besides, particulate matter can enter deeply into lungs, causing serious respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and spreading infective diseases. Meanwhile, by scattering sunlight, aerosols facilitate plant photosynthesis and protein expression. Because of the adverse effects of aerosols on climate and humans, several mitigation strategies, based on primary pollution sources, are proposed and discussed. To reduce vehicle aerosol emissions, implementing traffic restrictions is a potential strategy if practical and feasible for local communities. Encouraging the switch to electric vehicles is another strategy suggested and is more widely applied. For industry, a cap-and-trade system serves as another mitigation strategy to limit industrial emissions and provide incentives to reduce emissions.