Cleaner Air Creates Global Warming
THE BBC brings news that the dirtier the air, the cooler the planet.
How sunny do you want it?
Since the 1970s, European temperatures have risen by about half-a-degree Celsius per decade. This warming rate is faster than the global mean change (roughly equal to 0.18C per decade) and the trend averaged over all the Earth’s land (roughly equal to 0.27C per decade) during the same period.
The regional climate models used by scientists have failed to simulate the European experience, say Vautard and colleagues; and they point to legislation that has cleaned up Europe’s air as the probable cause.
This has limited the presence of the tiny particles, or aerosols, in the atmosphere which help trigger the low-visibility phenomena. With fewer fogs, mists and haze, more of the Sun’s energy has been reaching the surface, leading to a rise a rise in temperatures, they tell Nature Geoscience.
The team’s analysis suggests the clearer air’s contribution to the background warming trend may have been about 10-20% across Europe as a whole; and in Eastern Europe specifically, it may have been as much as 50%.
Winters were colder before the EU.
Posted: 21st, January 2009 | In: Reviews Comments (4) | TrackBack | Permalink
