<
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/ground-level-ozone-pollution-poses-growing-threat-to-planetary-health/>
"Kilometers above the Earth’s surface, the ozone layer protects humanity and
all life from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet rays. But in the troposphere, at
ground level, this gas can wreak havoc on planetary health in myriad ways. As
temperatures increase due to climate change, the ozone problem is forecast to
worsen in many parts of the world — including heavily populated urban and rural
areas in the tropics.
Ground-level zone isn’t a direct emission; it’s created when precursors such as
methane, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds react
together with sunlight. These precursors include many anthropogenic sources —
especially the burning of fossil fuels (in vehicles, by industry and at power
plants) and via agriculture and wildfires, all of which crank up tropospheric
ozone levels.
“The problem with ozone is it’s an incredibly active molecule and somewhat
unstable in the environment. It interacts with everything it touches,” Nathan
Borgford-Parnell, coordinator of the Scientific Advisory Panel and Science
Affairs at the Climate & Clean Air Coalition, told
Mongabay in an interview.
That makes tropospheric ozone a planetary health problem that threatens human
health, food security and biodiversity. “The concerns are quite legion,” says
Borgford-Parnell.
Ground-level ozone pollution is getting worse due to what experts have dubbed
the “ozone-climate penalty.” Though ozone’s formation is complex, it is closely
tied to higher temperatures. That’s why the problem generally peaks in warmer
months; which was true in 2024 — officially the hottest year on record, with
ozone pollution spiking during European summer heat waves.
The increasingly common formation of heat domes, also due to climate change,
add to the problem, as stalled weather systems allow precursor pollutants and
ground-level ozone to build up in stagnant air.
In coming decades, as temperatures rise, persistent heat domes form, and
wildfires increase, the burden of ozone pollution will very likely intensify in
cities and tropical areas in India, Latin America, Africa, Indonesia and
elsewhere as these regions face their own ozone-climate penalty.
“Changes in weather patterns, and increasing temperature, biomass burning and
ozone precursor emissions [will] accelerate this rise in tropical tropospheric
ozone,” says Jayanarayanan Kuttippurath, a climate scientist at the Indian
Institute of Technology Kharagpur."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
