Real Global Temperature Trend, part 3 – Global Dimming declining, but could still mask 50 percent of CO2 warming(!)

Amidst a storm of climate records here at Bits of Science we’re searching for ‘The Real Global Temperature Trend’. Today is part three of the series – the second episode about ‘Global Dimming‘. Although worldwide aerosol pollution is slowly declining … Continue reading

Searching for Real Global Temperature Trend, part 2 – Global Dimming: if aerosol cooling is underestimated, then warming trend is higher

Yes. It’s been a while, but we have an update in our Today’s Paradox series: If aerosol climate cooling is underestimated, that means the trend line of the global temperature graph would lie higher than the one you get by … Continue reading

Superscale volcanic eruptions can disappoint as climate coolers, Pleistocene record shows

Yes, during ice ages it can be a bit chilly. That’s why stuff that happened in the Pleistocene is easily linked to climate cooling. Like asteroids falling from the sky. Or volcanoes erupting.

Natural sulfur aerosol emissions provide support for Gaia hypothesis

Is Earth really a sort of giant living organism as the Gaia hypothesis predicts? A new discovery made at the University of Maryland may provide a key to answering this question. This key of sulfur could allow scientists to unlock heretofore hidden interactions between ocean organisms, atmosphere, and land — interactions that might provide evidence supporting this famous theory.

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Today’s paradox: global warming may offset Criegee cooling

And that’s not quite the same as having things the other way around. If you see Criegee biradicals as silver bullet, remember they are already constantly being fired up…

Indian aerosol pollution stimulates tropical cyclones over Arabian Sea – because of monsoon disturbance

White sulfur aerosols cool the climate; black carbon soot warms the climate. So when you mix the two kinds of aerosol pollution up in the Asian brown cloud, one would expect climate effects to even out. Unfortunately in our physical … Continue reading

Today’s paradox: Indian monsoon may recover at price of climate change

Over the second half of the 20th century the monsoon rains in the Ganges Valley in north and northeast India decreased by 10 percent. Meanwhile monsoon rains in the south and the Indus Valley [remember 2010 Pakistan floods] increased. Burning … Continue reading

Today’s paradox: coal is not worse for climate than natural gas

It´s basic chemistry: coal is mainly carbon, if you burn it you get lots of CO2. Natural gas is mostly methane, and that’s a different story. With methane just ’20 percent of the burned atoms’ are carbon, the rest is … Continue reading