“Cleaning up the air can actually warm the planet because that (soot and sulfate) pollution results in cooling,” – A. Gettelman, National Center for Atmospheric Research
A group of five researchers from the US and UK have concluded that a reduction in air pollution, caused by the Covid-19 lockdowns, caused a net increase in global temperatures. They claim that a reduction in black carbon and sulfate pollution allowed more heat from the sun to reach the surface of the earth.
They concluded that in some regions, mostly in the northern hemisphere, a reduction in pollution caused surface temperature increases of +.1 to .3 Kelvin. (About .2 to .5 Fahrenheit)
Globally, reduced pollution caused the entire surface of the earth to increase .03 Kelvin. (.05 Farenheit)
The five men behind the study:
A. Gettelman & C. G. Bardeen of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO,
D. Watson-Parris of the Atmospheric, Oceanic and Planetary Physics, Oxford University, Oxford, UK
P. M. Forster of Priestly Centre, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
R. Lamboll of Imperial College, London, UK,
