What a paradox! Improved air quality is now accelerating global warming

We all know that greenhouse gases that cause climate change are released while burning coal or gasoline. But did you know that these gases play a positive role too? They actually help our planet remain cool by lifting pollution particles like aerosols that cool the globe by reflecting sunlight and reducing some of the heat. However, now that more and more people have accepted the reality of climate change, and air pollution is decreasing, Earth is in fact getting hotter. The detrimental effects this cleaner is having on the environment and how it will affect us going forward have been highlighted by a recent study.

Science.org reports that during the study, researchers have discovered that the impact of global air pollution on climate has decreased by up to 30 per cent from 2000 levels based on a variety of satellite studies.

Despite the fact that airborne fine particles, or aerosols, are believed to cause deaths of several million people each year, and that their reduction is good news for public health; it is bad news for global warming.

According to Johannes Quaas, a climate scientist at Leipzig University and the study's primary author, cleaner air has actually increased the amount of warming caused by carbon dioxide emissions over the same period of time by somewhere between 15 per cent and 50 per cent.

And, as air pollution continues to be reduced, he predicts, "there will be a lot more of this."

Talking to Science.org, Jan Cermak, a remote sensing expert at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, says continuing to pollute is not the solution.

“Air pollution kills people. We need clean air. There is no question about that.” Instead, he believes, efforts to minimise greenhouse gases must be increased.

However, Hansen believes there is little chance of reducing emissions quickly enough to meet the 1.5°C limit scientists have asked for, given that the Earth has warmed by about 1.2°C since preindustrial times.

Therefore, he suggests that the answer may be to turn to aerosols once more, but this time through solar geoengineering.

He claims that in order to prevent catastrophic effects, it will be essential to adopt interim corrective measures, which very certainly include the planned temporary use of aerosols. Geoengineering is the controversial idea of launching sulphate particles into the stratosphere to produce a global, reflective haze.