November 27, 2024

expert reaction to study on ocean’s sulfur emission and climate cooling

A study published in Science Advances looks at ocean sulfur emission and climate cooling.

Prof. Tim Osborn, Director of the Climatic Research Unit and Professor of Climate Science, University of East Anglia, said:

“The cooling of our climate by the natural sulfur emissions tracked in this new study are far exceeded by the cooling from humanity’s emissions of sulfur, and both are overwhelmed by the climate warming caused by humanity’s emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. So, the new study by Charel Wohl and colleagues doesn’t change our overall picture of why and how much our global climate is changing. But it does help better understand a more subtle feature of our climate, which is why the atmosphere above the Southern Oceans reflects so much sunlight when the air above this remote ocean is quite pristine compared with regions closer to sources of sulfur pollution. The answer seems to be a previously little researched chemical produced naturally by plankton in the oceans — and especially in the Southern Ocean during summertime.”

‘Marine emissions of methanethiol increase aerosol cooling in the Southern Ocean’ by Charel Wohl et al. was published in Science Advances at 19:00 UK time on Wednesday 27th November. 

DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adq2465

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