Urban aerosol pollution: a by-product of energy consumption

All human activities, sustained by a given energy input, produce a certain amount of waste, since there is no process in nature with efficiency equal to 1, as known from thermodynamics. Among the different categories of 'waste', we can include also atmospheric emissions, that constitute a threat to the environment, since they affect the climate system, the biosphere and also the human health. Atmospheric aerosol emissions can be considered among the by-products of energetic consumption, as we can demonstrate, and they represent a known major risk since many centuries. The relation between energy consumptions and aerosol primary and secondary emissions is here discussed. The attention, then, is focused on the urban environment. Aerosol pollution should be regarded as a byproduct of energy consumption, while discussing about the different environment constraints within urban planning strategies