World News

22063 readers

19 users here now

Breaking news from around the world.

News that is American but has an international facet may also be posted here.

Guidelines for submissions:

Where possible, post the original source of information.
- If there is a paywall, you can use alternative sources or provide an archive.today, 12ft.io, etc. link in the body.
Do not editorialize titles. Preserve the original title when possible; edits for clarity are fine.
Do not post ragebait or shock stories. These will be removed.
Do not post tabloid or blogspam stories. These will be removed.
Social media should be a source of last resort.

These guidelines will be enforced on a know-it-when-I-see-it basis.

For US News, see the US News community.

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

253

How Accidental Geoengineering May Be Affecting Climate Change. [Re: rise in sea temperature] (threadreaderapp.com)

submitted 1 year ago by trashhalo@beehaw.org to c/news@beehaw.org

44 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Scientists have discovered that the recent spike in global temperatures may be caused by a reduction in sulfur dioxide pollution from shipping vessels. Ships have long emitted sulfur dioxide, which cools the planet by seeding clouds and reflecting sunlight. However, new regulations that limit sulfur in ship fuels took effect in 2020, leading to a loss of this cooling effect equivalent to a large volcanic eruption each year. Models show this reduction in sulfur dioxide pollution can explain the extra warming seen in the North Atlantic. While pollution is bad, the new regulations provide a natural experiment that gives insight into how intentional geoengineering could potentially combat climate change in the future.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] FaceDeer@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Indeed. There are people who wail and lament about how we've passed a "tipping point" and the climate is doomed to catastrophic warming no matter how much our emissions are reduced at this point, and then when you bring up the possibility of studying geoengineering they snap back at you with a "but not like that" reflex.

Frankly, I think there are environmentalists who like the notion of inescapable doom. It gives them an "I told you so" feeling of victory, perhaps, or absolves them of any further effort. Or they've decided humanity is evil and deserves to be "punished." I don't know, it's just so wearying trying to deal with that reaction.

At the end of the day, when major governments are faced with the choice of collapsing under a wave of migrants and famine and taking a stab at spraying some aerosols into the upper atmosphere as a hail Mary, they're going to try the thing that isn't guaranteed disaster. Would be nice if we could do some studying of it first.

[–] upstream@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Change is hard, much better to keep doing something that doesn’t work.