Receive offers, marketing and promotions via email or phone from Leads.io about GreenMatch or our brands and affiliates to help you save.

Your privacy is important to us. By submitting this form, you consent to Leads.io and up to 4 suppliers contacting you by email, web push, telephone (incl. automated calls) and/or SMS with details or quotes for your enquiry and such products, and/or to confirm your product requirements. You have certain rights in relation to your personal data, including the right to object to direct marketing.

Disclaimer: GreenMatch aims to provide information to users to help them to lead a more sustainable lifestyle. The content found on GreenMatch and its service are free for all users. We may, however, earn a commission from sales generated through our site. This has no additional cost to the users and does not affect their purchase. We earn a commission from the companies we collaborate with; this helps us run the site and keep our service free. You can read more about us here.

You can change your preferred cookie settings below. Read more about our cookie policy here.

You have disabled targeted ads cookies and we will not use these cookies to provide you with relevant and personalised marketing content.

If you at an earlier point have opted in for this type of cookies, either at our website or at any other website, you will likely have third party cookies in your browser that is being used to track your browsing behaviour. The following is a list of the third parties we collaborate with and a link to where you can opt opt of their personalised marketing programmes that we and other advertisers are using.

We and our partners use cookies on our website to improve your browsing experience, personalize content and ads, provide social media features, and analyze our traffic. If you continue interacting we assume that you are happy to receive all cookies on this website. However, you can change your at any time at the bottom of this page. Read more about our cookie policy.

This page might be broken, but we are here to save the day!
\nDid you know that you can get up to 4 quotes from local renewable energy installers by using GreenMatch?
\nClick on the button below and start exploring your options!

Uncovering the Link between Aerosols and Global Warming

Aerosols are very small particles dispersed in our atmosphere that work in opposition to greenhouse gases. While greenhouse gases trap solar energy and contribute to warming our planet, aerosols typically have more of a competing, cooling effect. In fact, some estimates even suggest that since the 1950s, these aerosol particles have likely counteracted about a third of greenhouse gas-driven global warming.

Natural aerosols, such as sea salt, dust particles, and organic compounds from plants make up about 90% of the aerosols in our atmosphere and constitute an important part of our planet’s atmosphere. The other 10% occur from human activities, namely industrial pollution and the burning of tropical forests.

Although often regarded as air pollution for their damaging effects on human health and agricultural productivity, these aerosols collectively play a crucial role in counteracting global warming. Sulfate aerosols, in particular, are considered by many scientists as the most significant aerosols as they absorb no solar radiation, but rather reflect it back into space. In addition to increasing our planet’s albedo, aerosols can also influence the climate via clouds. As a matter of fact, there would be no rain without aerosols to act as the nuclei or “cloud seeds” on which water vapour can condense.

Recently, the interaction between aerosol particles and our climate has gained increasing attention from the science community (and rightfully so), wherein some research has found that geographic location markedly influences the cooling potential of a given aerosol emission.

GreenMatch has created an infographic to illustrate this topic.

\n\n\n\n\n

Certain models have demonstrated that the cooling potential of aerosol emissions from Western Europe is fourteen times that of those from India. Meanwhile, more and more developed countries are beginning to prioritise the benefit of cleaner air from mitigating aerosols, namely by switching to renewable sources of energy such as solar energy. This means that aerosol emissions from regions with greater cooling potential are actually on the decline.

\n\n\n\n

At the same time, emissions from Asia are picking up, suggesting that as newer, lesser developed economies become the main emitters, the rate at which aerosols offset global warming might actually decline quite rapidly in the future.

\n\n\n\n

Such findings indicate that the prospect of regulatory intervention and geoengineering to stabilise the global climate may actually be necessary. Some of the more popular proposals put forward include direct air capture (DAC) to remove carbon dioxide from the air, and releasing reflective aerosols into the stratosphere. Bearing in mind that each technique has its pros and cons, in-depth research into each strategy and how we could best deploy it has become more crucial now than ever.

\n\n\n

GreenMatch
博客
气溶胶:为什么我们必须立即采取行动,避免气候危机

最后更新:2021年2月26日

气溶胶:为什么我们必须立即采取行动,避免气候危机

发现气溶胶和全球变暖之间的联系

大气气溶胶是非常小的粒子分散在我们的工作反对温室气体。而太阳能温室气体陷阱和导致地球变暖,气溶胶通常有更多的竞争,冷却效果。事实上,甚至一些估计显示,自1950年代以来,这些气溶胶粒子有可能抵消第三个全球变暖的温室擅长制造。

自然气溶胶,如海盐,尘埃颗粒,有机化合物从植物约占90%的气溶胶在大气和构成地球大气层的一个重要组成部分。另外10%来自人类活动发生,即工业污染和热带森林的燃烧。

虽然经常被视为空气污染的危害对人类健康和农业生产率,这些气溶胶都扮演着重要的角色在抗击全球变暖。硫酸盐气溶胶尤其值得一提的是,许多科学家认为他们最重要的气溶胶没有吸收太阳辐射,而是它反射回太空。除了增加地球的反照率,气溶胶通过云也可以影响气候。事实上,就没有雨没有气溶胶作为细胞核或“云种子”水蒸气凝结。

最近,气溶胶粒子之间的相互作用和气候科学社会获得了越来越多的关注(理应如此),其中一些研究发现地理位置显著影响冷却给定气溶胶排放的潜力。

GreenMatch创造了一个图表来说明这个话题。