Can reducing air pollution actually be hurting the planet? This is what a recent study published in Nature Communications hopes to address as a team of scientists investigated a link between air pollution decreases and cloud brightness decreases. This study has the potential to help researchers, climate scientists, legislators, and the public better understand how certain aspects of fighting climate change might have the opposite effect, specifically including raising global temperatures.
For the study, the researchers used a series of computer models to simulate how reductions in aerosol pollutants could have contributed to decreases in cloud reflectivity throughout the North Atlantic and Northeast Pacific between 2003 and 2022. The goal of the study was to confirm findings from recent studies that noted unexplained warming across the planet despite efforts to curb climate change, specifically noting heat records established in 2023 and 2024. In the end, the researchers found that cloud reflectivity in the above regions experienced average decreases of 2.8 percent per decade while decreases in aerosols were responsible for approximately 69 percent of the decrease in cloud reflectivity.
“We may be underestimating warming trends because this connection is stronger than we knew,” said Dr. Knut von Salzen, who is a research scientist at the University of Washington and lead author of the study. “I think this increases the pressure on everyone to rethink climate mitigation and adaptation because warming is progressing faster than expected.”
As noted, this study comes as 2023 and 2024 experienced record levels of global temperatures while nations worldwide are simultaneously attempting to curb greenhouse gas emissions and the effects of climate change. Therefore, studies like this demonstrate how humanity might have to adjust their tactics fighting climate change, as it might be doing more harm than good.
What new insight into air pollution and cloud brightness will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: Nature Communications, EurekAlert!