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Page added on July 9, 2011
How China accidentally geoengineered the climate
Between 2003 and 2007, China burned so much coal that it increased global consumption of the stuff 25 percent. That put so much sulfur into the air that it more or less literally (temporarily) blotted out the sun, masking some of the global warming that otherwise would have occurred during the first decade of the 21st century.
Deliberately putting sulfur into the atmosphere has been proposed as a means of “geoengineering” Earth’s climate, in order to cool the planet temporarily while we figure out a way to get off all these carbon-rich fossil fuels. So, in a way, China’s gigantic exercise in coal burning was an unintentional experiment in geoengineering using atmospheric sulfur. The results are in: it worked. A new paper [PDF] in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says that there is little observed warming of the planet from 1998 to 2008 for a number of reasons, but an important one is that all that sulfur helped cool the planet.
Sulfur doesn’t stay in the atmosphere long — on the order of months — but the carbon dioxide from all that coal we burned has a half life of centuries. This means we’re now in for a double whammy: our industrial pollution is actually hiding some of the global warming that’s already occurring, plus pumping out greenhouse gases that will keep warming worsening for decades to come. Think of it like getting punched repeatedly in the face, but taking an aspirin every time. It’ll make the bleeding worse, but at least you won’t feel it right away!
2 Comments on "How China accidentally geoengineered the climate"
Anthony on Sat, 9th Jul 2011 5:24 pm
El Rushbo was right. Burn more coal to COOL the planet! Good god our scientists and politicians are absolute IDIOTS. Rush Limbaugh is right 99.6% of the time. Suck it Obama and Gore!
Frank Kling on Sun, 10th Jul 2011 9:06 am
I can’t figure out if Anthony’s comment above, “burn more coal to COOL the planet” is satire or honest commentary though I hope the former. Sulfur rapidly dissipates from the atmosphere while CO2 remains far longer. So long as the world continues to burn coal the real consequences of rapid climate change are obscured, but we know coal is a finite resource. As the amount of coal being consumed declines, the full effects of global climate change will become apparent. Be careful what you wish for Ditto-head.