[cogitator]

This is part of a continuing effort by James Hansen and his colleagues at the Goddard Institute of Space Studies to get policy makers to recognize the importance of black soot pollution. Controlling black soot pollution could have much more impact on global warming than controlling CO2 emissions, and as the article notes, it would also likely have direct and indirect health benefits. (By indirect I mean that if black soot is causing changes in precipitation patterns, floods and droughts also affect the health of the people living in those regions.)

[RippleFire]

BUMP

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

(I'll caveat the following by pointing out that the word may is used an awful lot in the above)

Where (in terms of the different layers of the atmosphere) does this black soot settle? In other words, is it a lower layer phenomenon or upper layer? It would be interesting in light of the basic problem with the current models: Absence of upper level warming predicted to precede lower level warming.

This would also assume that the stuff really does absorb extra infrared (in other words more than the total which would be absorbed through other processes)

[Paradox]

Cogitator, I want to thank you for these global warming updates, and for your open mind on the phenomena, its cause, or lack thereof. I know the mood on FR is to tend to deny it wholeheartedly, but I believe it _is_ something that should be studied.

Thanks again.

[Dr. Frank fan]

Controlling black soot pollution could have much more impact on global warming than controlling CO2 emissions, and as the article notes, it would also likely have direct and indirect health benefits.

Perhaps, but it won't enable self-anointed smart, caring "environmentalist" people to take money away from prosperous Western countries and give it to themselves and Third World dictators while they pat themselves on the back. So it's a non-starter.

[mc5cents]

GLOBAL WARMING CAUSES GLOBAL COOLING!

[TC Rider]

Ban the scooters in Europe. heh heh

[RayChuang88]

In fact, anyone who's seen the HORRID air pollution of China's cities knows that capping smokestack emissions and reducing vehicle emissions does way more to cure pollution problems than this totally silly notion of global warming.

I mean, take a look at the Los Angeles Basin. Up until the late 1980's, they used to have smog so intense it was as dense as fog--and this caused no end of respiratory problems. Once industry was forced to clean up smokestack emissions and the majority of automobiles got modern emission control systems, in 2002 Los Angeles rarely experiences Stage II smog alerts, and there are many more days from Los Angeles you could actually see Mount Baldy from downtown Los Angeles.

Our auto emission controls have gotten so good that the air going into the intake system of the car is in many cases worse than the exhaust coming out of the exhaust pipe.

[fella]

Uuuuuh. Don't those burning forests that the enviros love so much put just a little bit of soot into the air?

[r9etb]

(By indirect I mean that if black soot is causing changes in precipitation patterns, floods and droughts also affect the health of the people living in those regions.)

It's also worth asking what creates soot. In many 3rd world places, it's burning wood. So you've got soot, and you've also got deforestation, which leads to flooding, etc....

Even so, however, I think the biggest contributor is still Mr. Sun.

[Plutarch]

There's no "juice" in soot reduction. You can't tax those poor countries producing it. The Green types will disregard the soot theory.

[RightWhale]

In the 50s the Russians laid down vast fields of soot on snowfields overlaying grainfields in Siberia in an attempt to get the snow to melt earlier and thereby extend the growing season. Could soot be landing on the Arctic snowfields and Arctic cap thereby causing the icecap and the glaciers to melt more than normal?

[VOA]

bump