Emissions are Sparking Increases in African Heat Waves in Unexpected Ways, New Study Finds - Inside Climate News
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Declines in cooling sulfates combined with increases in greenhouse gas concentrations have increased the intensity and frequency of African heat waves. And the temperature spikes may be even more intense than has been recorded.

“There was the misconception that, because Africa is warm anyway, people are tolerant to the heat,” she said. “I think that tolerance level is now superseded.”

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  • Jim East@slrpnk.netOPEnglish
    1·
    2 months 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