China’s war on smog is choking Shandong’s oil and chemical industries
From Watts Up With That?
Essay by Eric Worrall
Apparently the drop in particulate emissions during the Covid lockdown triggered a surge of global warming.
Climate paradox: Emission cuts could ‘unmask’ deadly face of climate change, scientists warn
BY SAUL ELBEIN – 06/01/23 6:00 AM ET
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One the one hand, cutting fossil fuel pollution is necessary for avoiding severe destruction over the long term. But such cuts will make the earth much hotter in the short term.
One recent study cast the well-known declines in air pollution during the COVID-19 pandemic in a darker light.
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That’s because the shuttered factories and power plants led to a corresponding crash in emissions.
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After the cuts, the study found that light reaching the surface increased by 7 percent.
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A draft study led by Columbia University climate scientist James Hansen suggests that the recent rise in temperatures doesn’t come from greenhouse gases at all, but from the reduction in sulfate aerosols since the early-2000s.
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Not all climate scientists accept Hansen and company’s conclusion.
“I have nothing but respect & reverence for [Hansen] … but I think he is wrong on this one,” University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann tweeted.
The abstract of the study;
Aerosol demasking enhances climate warming over South Asia
H. R. C. R. Nair, Krishnakant Budhavant, M. R. Manoj, August Andersson, S. K. Satheesh, V. Ramanathan& Örjan Gustafsson
npj Climate and Atmospheric Science volume 6, Article number: 39 (2023) Cite this article
Abstract
Anthropogenic aerosols mask the climate warming caused by greenhouse gases (GHGs). In the absence of observational constraints, large uncertainties plague the estimates of this masking effect. Here we used the abrupt reduction in anthropogenic emissions observed during the COVID-19 societal slow-down to characterize the aerosol masking effect over South Asia. During this period, the aerosol loading decreased substantially and our observations reveal that the magnitude of this aerosol demasking corresponds to nearly three-fourths of the CO2-induced radiative forcing over South Asia. Concurrent measurements over the northern Indian Ocean unveiled a ~7% increase in the earth’s surface-reaching solar radiation (surface brightening). Aerosol-induced atmospheric solar heating decreased by ~0.4 K d−1. Our results reveal that under clear sky conditions, anthropogenic emissions over South Asia lead to nearly 1.4 W m−2 heating at the top of the atmosphere during the period March–May. A complete phase-out of today’s fossil fuel combustion to zero-emission renewables would result in rapid aerosol demasking, while the GHGs linger on.Read more: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41612-023-00367-6
Note James Hansen did not participate in the above study which discusses the impact of the Covid lockdown on global warming. The Hill also article referenced a draft James Hansen study which attempts to link clean air policies since 2010 to recent global warming.
What can I say? The solution seems obvious.
Instead of demanding coal plants reduce sulphate emissions, sulphate and particulate emissions should be encouraged. That way we could save everyone from global warming by raising the sulphate burden of the atmosphere, while we wait for the solar panels to kick in and replace fossil fuel.
Do I need a /sarc tag?
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