Atmosphere: Air Pollution and Its Effects (Our Fragile Planet)

Earth's atmosphere supports and protects all of its life, giving the planet its blue skies, mild temperatures, and weather. But people use the atmosphere for another purpose: as a dump for waste gases and particles. Air pollution obscures vistas, damages ecosystems, and compromises human health. Combined with water in the atmosphere, air pollutants create acid rain. In the upper atmosphere, air pollutants damage the ozone layer, which protects life from the sun's harmful rays. Excess emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane push global temperatures higher, creating global warming. While some pollutants are successfully regulated, as population grows and industries expand, more intensive solutions are needed to deal with the many types of air pollution and its consequences. This provocative book tackles these issues in a straightforward manner and shows readers what they can do to help conserve our planet's atmosphere.

Dana Desonie, Ph.D., a full-time science writer, was previously a research scientist in geochemistry at Columbia University's Lamon-Doherty Earth Observatory. She is the author of "Cosmic Collisions". She makes her home in New York City.