Dust decline identified as contributor to warming despite air quality gains
2Sep 17 · 6d ago · 3 articles · 2 sources · development 2 of 2
Researchers explain that dust has a modest net cooling effect by reflecting sunlight back to space; reduced dust therefore loses that cooling benefit, potentially adding to global warming. However, the decline is beneficial for public health in dust-exposed regions and ecosystems dependent on wind-borne nutrients face trade-offs.
New Scientist
“A sustained decline in dust therefore ripples through all of these.”
Ashok Gupta
Ashok GuptaUCLA researcher, lead authorTegan ClarkAustralian National University researcher
The whole story articlesthe bright band is this development · numbered dots are the others · click one to jump
The air above us appears to carry a lot less dust than it did two decades ago. A new study found that global atmospheric dust dropped by roughly 10% from 2003 to 2023. That might sound like good news, but there’s a catch. Dust actually cools the planet a little. So less dust in the sky could mean the warming we’re already dealing with has been…
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