![]() ![]() If having high levels of air pollution in fact produces lower global temperatures, all the work done by environmentalists in the past will be completely void. Many other industrial countries followed curbing their own emissions, interestingly, during this period global temperatures increased rapidly after having been stable in the preceding decades. ![]() In the 1970’s, the United States began the Clean Air Act, which cut emissions of SO 2 and NO x to reduce acid rain and to improve public health. ![]() When run for longer time trials, without controls on SO 2, the effects of CO 2 eventually catch up to SO 2, eliminating the net cooling effect. While initially SO 2 creates a cooling effect, when unchecked, once controls are put on the warming potential of CO 2 comes into effect. In Shindell’s study, a number of scenarios have been run for the years 2000-2080, putting controls on the output of SO 2 and NO X from power plants. The most recent work being done on the climate effects of air pollution is being done in New York at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, led by scientist Drew Shindell. In fact, the dark layer acts like an umbrella, blocking the sun’s radiation from reaching Earth’s surface reflecting them back into space. The thick black clouds of smog produced from coal burning power plants in Asia seem to be having the reverse effect of warming in the atmosphere. However, in a new study, published February 17, 2010, scientists are beginning to look at air pollution as a possible inhibitor of global warming. In the world of climate change there is much debate over the reality of greenhouse gases and the volatile nature of toxic chemical emissions. ![]()
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