A new study found that the Earth has risen slightly from fever in 2020, partly due to cleaner air since the pandemic was blocked.
For a short time, temperatures in some parts of the eastern United States, Russia and China were up to half to two-thirds of a degree (from 0.3 to 0.37 degrees Celsius). This is due to less soot and sulfate particles from the car’s exhaust and burning coal, which normally cool the atmosphere temporarily by reflecting the sun’s heat, Tuesday’s study in the journal Geophysical Research Letters reported.
In general, the planet was about 0.05 degrees (0.03 degrees Celsius) warmer for the year because the air had fewer cooling aerosols, which, unlike carbon dioxide, is a pollution that you can see, the study found.
“Cleaning the air can warm the planet because pollution (soot and sulfate) leads to cooling” that climate scientists have long known, said study lead author Andrew Gettelman, an atmospheric scientist at the National Center. of Atmospheric Research. His calculations come from comparing the weather in 2020 with computer models that simulated a 2020 without reducing the pollution caused by pandemic blockages.
This temporary warming effect of fewer particles was stronger in 2020 than the effect of reducing heat-capturing carbon dioxide emissions, Gettelman said. That’s because carbon stays in the atmosphere for more than a century with long-term effects, while aerosols stay in the air for about a week.
Even without the reduction of cooling aerosols, global temperatures in 2020 were already flirting with the annual heat record due to the burning of coal, oil and natural gas – and the effect of the aerosol could have been enough to make it the hottest year to measure. NASA system, said Gavin Schmidt, a climate scientist at NASA, who was not part of this study, but confirmed that it confirms other research.
“Clean air warms the planet a little, but it kills far fewer people with air pollution,” Gettelman said.
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