Atmospheric dust may have hidden true extent of global heating

Friday 20 Jan 2023
European Council for Energy Efficient Economy
eceee, the European Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, is a membership-based non-profit association. They generate and provide evidence-based knowledge and analysis of policies, and facilitate co-operation and networking through their Summer Studies, workshops, and social media.

Material from dry landscapes has surged since the 1800s, possibly helping to cool the planet for decades.

Dust that billows up from desert storms and arid landscapes has helped cool the planet for the past several decades, and its presence in the atmosphere may have obscured the true extent of global heating caused by fossil fuel emissions.

Atmospheric dust has increased by about 55% since the mid-1800s, an analysis suggests. And that increasing dust may have hidden up to 8% of warming from carbon emissions.

The analysis by atmospheric scientists and climate researchers in the US and Europe attempts to tally the varied, complex ways in which dust has affected global climate patterns, concluding that overall, it has worked to somewhat counteract the warming effects of greenhouse gasses. The study, published in Nature Reviews Earth and Environment, warns that current climate models fail to take into account the effect of atmospheric dust.

Read the article on the eceee website

Source: (The Guardian, 17 Jan 2023)

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