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I recall reading something about how stopping emissions outright would have a pretty dramatic adverse effect on global temperatures, because while the greenhous
by nixpulvis 7y ago
I recall reading something about how stopping emissions outright would have a pretty dramatic adverse effect on global temperatures, because while the greenhouse effect is of course real, the emissions also act as reflection for incoming solar energy. This makes me wonder if we can fix this problem without real innovation, not just global production collapse (which is bad for other reasons, obviously).
If anyone can remind me about what I'm thinking of here, that would be awesome... or prove me wrong.
I'm by no means saying we shouldn't be planning and building more sustainable solutions (both policy and products), since that's EXACTLY what we need to be doing. I'm just also saying that to make this all work, I think we need to do more.
- cosmic_shame 7y agoIt's called the aerosol masking effect, and it's terrifying.
- gscott 7y agoGood article: http://theconversation.com/masking-and-unmasking-of-global-warming-by-aerosols-19990 http://theconversation.com/masking-and-unmasking-of-global-w...
- throwaway5752 7y agoIt's not even a little scary compared to continued CO2 emission trends.
- SamBam 7y agoI'd be interested in reading more. It seems counter-intuitive -- the emissions that are already in the atmosphere would still be doing any reflection that they are currently doing. And whatever shielding they're doing, the net effect of every ton of CO2 is in the direction of more warming.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- sp332 7y agoThey're on different timescales. The aerosols will come out of the atmosphere relatively quickly, causing rapid warming.
- nixpulvis 7y agoMy understanding is that, while you are correct that these emissions are already in the air, they filter themselves out over time, so it's about rates of production vs rates of dismission (for lack of a better word). If we stop all emissions today, the sky will quite literally start clearing up, and thus warming the Earth even more. Not trying to be too sensationalist, but I believe this is the truth.
- nixpulvis 7y agoHere's the original article I was recalling: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/363/6427/eaav0566/tab-pdf https://science.sciencemag.org/content/363/6427/eaav0566/tab...
- lutorm 7y agoThe IPCC working group 1 summary talks about the physical effects, that's a pretty good primary source if you want a lot of detail and tons of references to trace down.