Atmosphere and Climate
(Michael Pidwirny and Tracy Gow)

1 Introduction

The Earth's atmosphere and climate have always been dynamic systems. Systems that constantly experience change over space and time. Variations in atmospheric chemistry and climate have been occurring since the beginning of Earth history. However, recent changes in these systems, over the last 200 years, have been strongly influenced by the activities of humans. These changes have caused the alteration of some natural atmospheric processes (greenhouse effect) and the creation of several environmental problems (e.g. photochemical smog, stratospheric ozone depletion, acid precipitation, and nitrogen loading) that were non-existent prior to human industrialization. Some of these changes have important ramifications to the Earth's environmental health.

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