New study indicates drop in air pollution drove a surge in warming…
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — General Discussion
TheMarks — 8 months ago(July 22, 2025 03:55 AM)
Uh, oh, climate p h a g s, who unironically spend half their day on a cellphone (which drains server energy and is comprised of dozens of finite Earth minerals)…
A new study finds a drop in air pollution likely drove a recent surge in warming…
Warming has accelerated over the last two decades, and in particular, over the last two years. Scientists say that shifting cloud cover, changes in solar activity, and even a volcanic eruption may be factors. But according to a new study, the biggest driver is the cleanup of air pollution in East Asia, primarily in China.
Over the last 15 years, Chinese officials have cracked down on sulfur dioxide seeping from power plants and factories. The pollutant can cause wheezing, coughing, and shortness of breath, but it also reacts with other airborne compounds to form sulfates, tiny particles that block sunlight, with a cooling effect.
The recent drop in industrial pollution led to a surge in warming, according to the modeling study, published in Nature Communications Earth and Environment.
Prior research had linked the drop in sulfates to a rise in ocean warming in the Pacific. The new study is the first to link the pollution cleanup to a global surge in warming going back more than 10 years. A 75 percent decline in sulfates in East Asia “has likely driven much of the recent global warming acceleration,” said lead author Bjørn H. Samset of the CICERO Centre for International Climate Research in Norway.
Researchers described the drop in pollution as an “unmasking” that revealed the true extent of warming. “We will see an acceleration of warming while the unmasking takes place,” said coauthor Laura Wilcox of the University of Reading in the U.K. -
/.ㅤ — 8 months ago(July 22, 2025 04:00 AM)
Either be original or give it a rest.
https://e360.yale.edu/digest/asia-air-pollution-sulfates-warming
My password is password. -
TonyKnox — 8 months ago(July 23, 2025 03:42 PM)
If pollutants were causing it to be cooler than it otherwise would have been and we already have seen higher temperatures over the past 100 years despite this, doesn't that mean humanity's impact on climate change is probably much worse but we have inadvertently masking it?
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Uncreative — 8 months ago(July 23, 2025 04:42 PM)
It's not a new topic. I remember hearing the same thing almost 20 years ago. Cleaner burning fuels use less sulfur but the sulfur was reflecting or blocking out extra sunlight or something. It's not bullshit. I'm assuming OP is trying to make an argument that we should keep polluting because of this, which would be a bunch of bullshit.
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dbentley666 — 8 months ago(July 23, 2025 06:25 PM)
What a moron! Air pollution clean-up leads to short-term warming, unlike carbon emissions. These conservative types can't even read!
Dr Laura Wilcox, contributing author and associate professor at the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) in the University of Reading, said: “The climate effects of air pollution are short-lived, while the impact of carbon dioxide emissions can be felt for centuries. This means that the acceleration of warming due to reductions in air pollution is also likely to be short-lived. We will see an acceleration of warming while the unmasking takes place, and then a return to a greenhouse-gas driven rate of warming as air pollution stabilizes.