Tuesday 20 January 2009

"Pollution is the solution: Official"

Well, according to the BBC at least:

Since the 1970s, European temperatures have risen by about half-a-degree Celsius per decade. This warming rate is faster than the global mean change (roughly equal to 0.18C per decade) and the trend averaged over all the Earth's land (roughly equal to 0.27C per decade) during the same period.

The regional climate models used by scientists have failed to simulate the European experience, say Vautard and colleagues; and they point to legislation that has cleaned up Europe's air as the probable cause.

This has limited the presence of the tiny particles, or aerosols, in the atmosphere which help trigger the low-visibility phenomena. With fewer fogs, mists and haze, more of the Sun's energy has been reaching the surface, leading to a rise a rise in temperatures, they tell Nature Geoscience.

The team's analysis suggests the clearer air's contribution to the background warming trend may have been about 10-20% across Europe as a whole; and in Eastern Europe specifically, it may have been as much as 50%.


*sigh*

It seems I shall have to abandon my narrow prejudices that cleaner air, better visibility for drivers and a balmier climate are Good Things.

*/sigh*

4 comments:

DBC Reed said...

Although conformist enough to go along with the global warming argument/bandwaggon, my experience of smogs in London and Manchester in the late 5o's and early 60's contributes to niggling doubts.London was called The Smoke in my young day for a reason:bright sunny days were in the minority; most of the time there was a strange suspension of particulates in the air which gives newsreels from the time a twinkling atmosphere that is quite nostagic. Manchester had many jet-black soot covered buidings which I thought cool and was sorry to see cleaned up.

John Pickworth said...

You gotta laugh...

Tropical Thailand declares emergency as cold hits

I notice the Beeb don't report these cold spells quite so often as they do the Co2 induced melting of the ice caps!

Mark Wadsworth said...

JP, try this link.

John Pickworth said...

Cheers.

Not sure how I mucked that one up? ;-)