Environmental Monitoring—Important for Climate Protection Policy and Measures

Abstract

During the past months, we have received more and more submissions on the topic of monitoring in the field of environment in the journal CLEAN – Soil, Air, Water. So far, monitoring articles have not been in scope for CLEAN. The increasing desire of scientists to publish articles with monitoring background in CLEAN has shown me as the Editor-in-Chief that environmental scientists very much see this kind of contribution in the journal. And I have to admit, they are right. With an increasing urgency regarding climate or climate change issues, we really need evidence of the changes in the parameters. If we cannot prove with data what the quality of air, water, and soils is, we lack the basis for taking action for clean air, pure water, and good soil quality—and thus also for the health of all of us. The discussion about climate change and its effects has long since reached the public. We not only read about it in scientific articles, but also learn in all the media available to us that we will not be able to reach the climate targets. Due to the hunger for energy, which is often satisfied by burning oil, gas or coal, the parameters for air quality, such as an increase in CO2 content, nitrogen oxides, methane, etc., have changed extremely in recent years. Another example would be the agricultural sector, where climate change is affecting soils, with droughts or heavy rainfall events. And there are so many more examples that could be mentioned here. As far as clean air is concerned, scientists worldwide have collected and published interesting results during lockdowns with restricted mobility in the COVID-19 pandemic. If mobility is restricted by government regulations, this has a massive effect on air quality—it improves considerably. But as soon as restrictions are lifted, we behave as usual. People are traveling by car and flight bookings are back to pre-pandemic levels. The values of water and soil pollution parameters are also alarming. More and more chemicals are found in soils and then later in water, or vice versa, first in water and then in soils—and later in the food on our plates. Microplastic particles can now be detected everywhere, in water, in soil, in food and in our bodies. Everything is connected to everything else. And so, monitoring of air, water, and soil quality parameters is more important than ever. I therefore welcome submissions on monitoring of water, air, and soil quality parameters in CLEAN. The following criteria apply to submissions that include monitoring data: Manuscripts containing only measured data are not sufficient for publication. The collected data should be compared and discussed with published works and the resulting findings should be placed in a scientific context. Let's add this new subject “Monitoring of Quality Parameters” to the journal. Stay healthy! Yours sincerely