• Jim East@slrpnk.netOP
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    7 days ago

    But certain aerosols—like sulfate particles, which are emitted along with carbon dioxide when coal is burned—act like mirrors that reflect some solar radiation away from the planet, thus cooling it.

    Before the 1980s, cooling aerosols and warming greenhouse gas emissions “were compensating each other,” he said. “So the net effect of humans was balanced out.”

    related: A Critical Look at UN IPCC’s Emissions Accounting