Click on image for full size
Copyright UCAR
Air Pollution and Climate Change
There are many different types of air pollution. Some types of air pollution make the Earth get warmer. Other types of air pollution make the Earth get cooler. Read on to learn more about how different types of air pollution change Earth’s temperature.
Air pollutants that make Earth warmer
Air pollution includes greenhouse gases. One of these is carbon dioxide, a common part of the exhaust from cars and trucks. Greenhouse gases cause the Earth to warm by trapping heat from the Sun in the atmosphere. Some greenhouse gases are a natural part of the air. Some were added to the air by people’s cars and trucks that release greenhouse gases as fuel is burned. Some were added to the air from smokestacks at factories and power plants. More greenhouses gases in the air means more global warming. In fact, since cars were invented and factories and power plants were built more than a century ago, the Earth’s temperature has increased. Scientists say that the Earth will get even warmer during the next 100 years.
Air pollutants that slow down global warming
Cars, trucks, and smokestacks also let tiny particles loose into the atmosphere. These tiny particles are called aerosols and can be made of different things. Some of these particles get into the atmosphere naturally. They are released from the ocean, deserts, forests, volcanoes, and are a part of the smoke from wildfires. But air pollution released by cars and smokestacks also adds them to the atmosphere. Aerosols have an impact on climate. While different types of aerosols act differently in the atmosphere, the overall effect of aerosols is cooling.
Shop Windows to the Universe Science Store!
Cool It! is the new card game from the Union of Concerned Scientists that teaches kids about the choices we have when it comes to climate change—and how policy and technology decisions made today will matter. Cool It! is available in our
online store.
You might also be interested in:
Have you ever heard of air pollution? Air pollution is not new. 700 years ago, when people started burning large amounts of coal 700 years ago in London, England, they complained about the dust and soot
...more
Only a tiny amount of the gases in Earth’s atmosphere are greenhouse gases. But they have a huge effect on climate. There are several different types of greenhouse gases, but they all have something in
...more
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a kind of gas. There isn't that much carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere, but it is still very important. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas. That means it helps trap heat coming
...more
Earth’s climate is getting warmer. During the past 100 years Earth’s average temperature rose about 0.6° Celsius (1.0° F). Things that people are doing like burning fossil fuels, changing the way land
...more
When you look up at the sky, you are looking at more than just air. There are also billions of tiny bits of solid and liquid floating in the air. These tiny particles are called aerosols or particulates.
...more
While most of the air in our atmosphere is made of nitrogen gas, there are other gases in our atmosphere that contain nitrogen too. They may make up only a small percentage of the air molecules in our
...more
Would you be surprised if smoke from a fire stopped you from seeing nearby buildings or mountains? Probably not. What if there was no fire, and a brown or gray haze filled the sky. Would you be surprised
...more
