Aerosol-Induced Climate Change Affects Rural Livelihoods: A Case Study

Atmospheric aerosols vary widely in size and chemical composition and both are important ingoverning their effects on climate and health. For climate effects, the number of intermediate sizeparticles is more important than the mass whereas the ecological effects are solely influenced by themass concentration. The various examples of aerosols are nucleation particles, soot particles,ammonium sulphate particles, pollen, mineral dust particles etc. Aerosols affect the climate directlyby scattering and absorbing the solar radiation and indirectly by modifying the properties of clouds.All aerosols except black carbon cause cooling. Aerosols have short lifetime of few days or weeksin comparison to the long lifetime of greenhouse gases. Therefore, aerosol effects are more regionaland less persistent into the future than those of green house gases. As a consequence of reductionsin aerosol concentrations there will be a more pronounced warming due to greenhouse effect.Aerosols also contribute to acid rain and affects visibility in the troposphere by forming fog, mist,smog and haze etc. The climate change affects the social and economic status of farmers. Theeffects of change of the climatic factors are studied on the fruit crops, vegetable crops andagricultural crops along with the effect on livestock. The main aim of this study is to determinewhether or not, climate has/had a detrimental effect on the choice of crop, usage of pesticides, andvarious adaptation techniques followed by the farmers. The study is based on the stratified randomsampling technique.