Bush often conflates “clean air” with solving global warming. There has been a theory for some time that in fact the opposite is the case. Now a new study in Science Magazine reported by the BBC supports the hypothosis.
The system works like this. Whereas greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide or methane (from all those farting pigs around Chesapeake Bay) provide a blanket that traps heat, particulates reflect radiation back into space.
It is quite possible that the increased radiation reaching the surface could put global warming past the “tipping point” where other things start to happen to accelerate it even further. The methane trapped at the ocean bottoms in methane hydrate nodules could be released as the sea temperature warms by a few degrees.
The problem is of course that politically it is very difficult to sell the idea. Those nice earth-cooling photochemical smogs that we got rid of because they killed so many with lung disease may have been out friends. Should fuel efficient aircraft travel producing helpfully reflective vapor trails be welcomed?
