Impact of air quality as a component of climate change on biodiversity-based ecosystem services

Human activities are linked to increasing pollution of water, air, and land. This pollution of the environment creates harmful effects on the organisms inhabiting the ecosystem within such localities. The increasing global population with the pressures of immigration to urban centers has created a frightening increase of urban population globally, rising from 751 million in 1950 to 4.5 billion in 2018. The pressure to feed this populace, provide goods and services to meet human needs has birthed unprecedented rise in commerce and industries of different kinds, making the cities of the world to contribute 60% to total global greenhouses gases emissions thereby polluting the air. The resultant greenhouse gases induced depleting effects on the ozone layer, have facilitated climate change with its attendant harmful characteristics, on the environment, ecosystems, and ultimately man. Greenhouse gases and other air pollutants are the central theme of climate change. This chapter has examined the impacts of air pollution on human health on short- and long-terms basis as well as on the environment such as acid rains, decreases/increases in rainfall and its impacts on crops cultivation, migratory pattern of birds, incidences of diseases vectors, flooding and drought with attendant ecological consequences on humans, crops, animals breeding and growth, and social-economic services. Changes in climatic conditions have been shown to affect animals and plants, while also tampering with income of farmers, while scarcity of water is shown to create conflicts between farmers and herders in rural communities, thereby creating social-political tensions in several demographics. The long-term impacts lie in the biodiversity loss, which distorts ecological dynamics in a manner that threatens humans, ecosystems/environment and ultimately the earth we all share. From this understanding, strategies to stem biodiversity loss and move toward cleaner ambient air were discussed and recommended.

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