The growth in air transportation volume has important global environmental impacts associated with the potential for climate change. On local to regional scales, noise, decreased air quality related primarily to ozone production and particulate levels, and other issues, such as roadway congestion related to airport services and local water quality, are all recognized as important impacts. (more…)

Since the early 1960s, climate change and air quality have become major and often controversial issues in many countries and among groups from governments to various scientific communities. Prominent among these issues is the greenhouse effect, in which the gradually increasing tropospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N20) are believed to trap an excessive amount of solar radiation reflected from the earth. (more…)

The convention aims not only at stabilizing CO2 emissions in developed countries but also at ultimately reducing man-made CO2 emissions globally so as to stabilize the global climate. Environmental degradation cannot be singled out as an independent matter among various global issues. (more…)

The flux of carbon among terrestrial, aquatic, and atmospheric pools is at least partially controlled by photosynthetic processes. The relative carbon pool sizes have major effects on global climate system. The CO2 flux among land, sea, and atmosphere has, since the industrial revolution, been disturbed by a rapid injection of (more…)