Environmental Chemistry

Abstract

The year 2020 has been a particularly momentous one in which to undertake a revision of Environmental Chemistry. That is because the year saw two particularly earth-shattering phenomena of great consequence for Planet Earth and its human population. First, numerous events around the globe have forcefully brought home the reality of global climate change. For example, on February 20, 2020, an all-time record high temperature of 18.3°C (64.9°F) was set in Antarctica; unprecedented wildfires ravished the US west coast and Colorado; and so many hurricanes occurred in the Gulf of Mexico that it was necessary to go deep into the Greek alphabet to name them all. On November 3, Hurricane Eta hit Central America as a powerful Category 4 storm, and just two weeks later, Category 5 Hurricane Iota traversed an almost identical path, leaving the populace devastated. The second momentous event characterizing 2020 is that the human population that depends on Planet Earth for its existence and well-being has been devastated by the worst pandemic to hit in more than a century, the deadly COVID-19 coronavirus. Either individually or in combination, these phenomena have altered living conditions on the Earth, toppled governments, threatened wars, resulted in mass migrations, and generally changed the complexion of Planet Earth and its population of humans and other species.