Soot particles from oil and wood heating systems as well as road traffic can pollute the air in Europe on a much larger scale than previously assumed. The evaluation of the sources during a measuring campaign in Germany showed that about half of the soot particles came from the surrounding area and the other half from long distances. This underlines the need to further reduce emissions of soot that is harmful to health and climate.
Weather check: Paul Crutzen
Paul Crutzen, Dutch Nobel prize-winning atmospheric chemist, at the University of Helsinki in May 2010. Credit: Teemu Rajala / Wikicommons
Paul Crutzen, Nobel laureate and one of the world’s most distinguished climate scientists, died on 28 January 2021, at a hospital in Mainz, Germany, following several years of illness. He was 87.
Crutzen shared the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Mario Molina and F. Sherwood Rowland, “for their work in atmospheric chemistry, particularly concerning the formation and decomposition of ozone”, says the Nobel Prize organisation.
His death was announced by Martin Stratmann, president of the Max Planck Society, where Crutzen worked as director of the Atmospheric Chemistry Department, in Mainz, from 1980 to 2000.