China's rapid industrial expansion may have halted global warming for much of the last decade, climate scientists claimed.
They said sulphur pollution from China’s coal-fired power
stations helped to keep world temperatures stable despite soaring greenhouse
gas emissions.
Burning coal releases carbon dioxide which traps heat
from the Sun, raising temperatures. But it also emits particles of sulphur that
help block the Sun’s rays and cool the Earth.
But it is thought temperatures will rise again now China
is tackling air pollution by installing equipment to scrub out sulphur
particles.‘During the Chinese economic expansion there was a huge increase in
sulphur emissions,’ Dr Robert Kaufmann, of Boston University, told the journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Some have suggested that injecting sulfur compounds into
the atmosphere might help ease global warming by increasing clouds and haze
that would reflect sunlight, but an earlier study concluded that would be a bad
idea.
Injecting enough sulfur to reduce warming would wipe out
the Arctic ozone layer and delay recovery of the Antarctic ozone hole by as
much as 70 years, according to an analysis by Simone Tilmes of the National
Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.
'While climate change is a major threat, more research is
required before society attempts global geoengineering solutions,' said Tilmes.
Overall, global temperatures have been increasing for
more than a century since the industrial revolution began adding gases like
carbon dioxide to the air.
But there have been similar plateaus, such as during the
post-World War II era when industrial production boosted sulfur emissions in
several parts of the world, Kaufmann explained.
Atmospheric scientists and environmentalists are
concerned that continued rising temperatures could have serious impacts
worldwide, ranging from drought in some areas, changes in storm patterns,
spread of tropical diseases and rising sea levels.