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Abstract:
Humanity faces a multitude of severe global environmental changes, such as climate change and global health effects.
Aerosol chemistry plays a vital role in the Earth system, climate, and health. Chemical reactions, mass transport, and phase transitions between gases, liquids, and solids are essential for the interaction and coevolution of life and climate. Knowledge of the mechanisms and kinetics of these processes is required to address societally relevant questions of global environmental change and development health in the Anthropocene, that is, in the present era of globally pervasive and steeply increasing human influence on planet Earth.
A clear example of future development is the rapid, large-scale urbanization of China. Already now about 10% of the global population is living in the area in eastern China inside a triangle confined roughly by the lines between Beijing, Shanghai, and Xian. The population is still increasing and gradually filling the less-urbanized areas between the individual cities, so that this region is becoming one gigacity, which is a grand challenge in view of the climate and air pollution. In this region, continuous improvement of air quality and associated reduction of carbon emissions have demonstrated the importance of multi-pollutant planning and coordinated control of air pollution and greenhouse gases. What happens there will continue to affect the entire planet and future course of the Anthropocene.
