Please polute to save the Arctic, WHAT ?

[WarraWarra]

Just stumbled onto this interesting research result from NASA.

Imagine burning dirty coal to safe our buts that causes the sun to be reflected and cooling the arctic regions.
So O'Bam Bam is onto something and he does not need to spend money on cleaning up the coal according to NASA.

Who thought banning smoking in public would have such a big effect.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/04/09/arctic_aerosols_goddard_institute/

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Shindell's research indicates that, ironically, much of the rise in polar temperature seen over the last few decades may have resulted from US and European restrictions on sulphur emissions. According to NASA:

    Sulfates, which come primarily from the burning of coal and oil, scatter incoming solar radiation and have a net cooling effect on climate. Over the past three decades, the United States and European countries have passed a series of laws that have reduced sulfate emissions by 50 percent. While improving air quality and aiding public health, the result has been less atmospheric cooling from sulfates.

Meanwhile, levels of black-carbon aerosols (soot, in other words) have been rising, largely driven by greater industrialisation in Asia. Soot, rather than reflecting heat as sulphates do, traps solar energy in the atmosphere and warms things up.

The Arctic is especially subject to aerosol effects, says Shindell, because the planet's main industrialised areas are all in the northern hemisphere and because there's not much precipitation to wash the air clean.

[smardy]

Yeh like many quick fixes global dimming by SO2 has some big problems..
Like, why was it banned in the first place? SO2 causes acid rain that kills many trees (not good for global warming) and also the particulates along with the smog caused by S02 shorten everyones lives like passive smoking.
It is true to say that the bulk of recent warming (last 10 years say) is more catching up with the real weather we would have been feeling if we hadn't been burning so much dirty coal in the first place. Introducing emissions standards reduced SO2 and the reflective blanket along with it.
But I shouldn't worry about US emissions, under Bush there were no standards for polluters to worry about, and letting them regulate and monitor themselves was just a joke even on knob hill. The reductions were mainly caused by euro zone standards. If there were an effective standard/monitor process in the US then we would see further birghtening and heating.
If you're on a beach in mexico I imagine it's pretty toasty most of the time.

[Ric]

Hehe. I think thats funny. Artificial adjustments to the environment almost always backfire somehow. But this makes me wonder just how much of this hot cycle is actually natural.?