Reductions in air pollution in East Asia are linked to a pronounced increase in global warming rates. Pollutants like sulphur dioxide help whiten clouds, enhancing their reflectivity and cooling the planet. As countries, especially China, improve air quality by cutting emissions, they eliminate this natural cooling effect, leading to more rapid warming. Since 1970, global temperatures have risen, with a clear acceleration observed post-2010, coinciding with cleaner air efforts in East Asia, which has seen a significant decrease in sulphur dioxide emissions.
Reducing our aerosol emissions isn't causing warming directly, but revealing more of the effects of greenhouse gas emissions.
This shading effect from air pollution has offset some of the warming we should have seen due to increasing greenhouse gases.
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