Just when you thought they couldn’t get any weirder…
Junk Scientists believe Chinese coal plants actually reduced global warming in this decade.
NPR
Michael D. Lemonick at Climate Central reported on this curious development back in 2011:
Trenberth himself has suggested that the slowdown in the 2000’s happened because excess heat was being stored temporarily in the deep ocean. But a new paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences offers a different explanation. The cause, argues lead author Robert K. Kaufmann, of Boston University’s Center for Energy and Environmental Studies, is another type of pollution — specifically, sulfur emissions from Chinese power plants. “Chinese coal consumption,” he points out, “has doubled in just four years, and they were using plenty to begin with.”
If unchecked by pollution controls, the sulfur creates atmospheric particles that reflect some sunlight back into space, counteracting the warming effect from rising amounts of CO2. “The short story,” says Kaufmann, “is that all of a sudden the human effects on climate cancel out during this period.”
It wouldn’t be the first time this has happened. During the middle of the 20th century, the planet went into a slight cooling phase that lasted for about 30 years. The cause: a rise in sulfate particles as the world’s economy boomed after World War II.
And to think… Intelligent people actually believe this garbage.
