uruloki’s lair

We used to live in LA. At least, the LA area. Up in the foothills, we could look out and see the smog that hovers over downtown on a daily basis. Now, we find out that it’s not all Los Angelenos fault.

On some days, almost a third of the air over Los Angeles and San Francisco can be traced directly to Asia. With it comes up to three-quarters of the black carbon particulate pollution that reaches the West Coast, Dr. Ramanathan and his colleagues recently reported in the Journal of Geophysical Research.

It is kinda neat to know but I found something else in the article to be much more interesting.

The influence of these plumes on climate is complex because they can have both a cooling and a warming effect, the scientists said. Scientists are convinced these plumes contain so many cooling sulfate particles that they may be masking half of the effect of global warming. The plumes may block more than 10% of the sunlight over the Pacific.

But while the sulfates they carry lower temperatures by reflecting sunlight, the soot they contain absorbs solar heat, thus warming the planet.

So, the man-made pollution is cooling the planet at the same time it is warming it. Both of these effects are – at this time – not measurable. Hmmmmm. Sounds like a wash to me.

Tags: Life //