According to Geophysical Research Letters, the Earth warmed half a degree last year due to reduced soot and sulfate particles. This was due to the pandemix quarantines. [Study Here](https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1029/2020GL091805)
So I’m genuinely asking: could increasing clean energy also cause global warming? Are we in a lose/lose situation?
In: Earth Science
The paper is sound, so yes. Sort of. The temperature rise they saw was due to getting rid of the products of burning fossil fuels. So as we increase our use of clean energy, we will slowly lose that minor cooling effect. The good news is that gets rid of an even greater heating effect by reducing our output of CO2. If we went 100% clean, there would be a small bump as soot and sulfates went away, but we’d be putting out zero CO2 to produce energy which is worth the tradeoff.
Worrying about additional warming from soot and sulfates dropping as a reason to oppose clean energy (not accusing you of doing this) is like not wanting to get stitches for a nasty cut because the stitches will hurt on top of your pain from the cut.
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