A new study claims that clean air may actually be worsening the drought in the Amazon rainforest — a region whose well being impacts the entire world's climate.
The scientists found that sun-reflective sulfate aerosols, released by coal-burning power plants, bounce light back to the sun, preventing it from hitting the Earth. Add a bunch of scientific mumbo-jumbo, and eventually the buffering impact of a concentrated amount of sulfates from the 1970s and 80s led to more rain in the Amazon. But now, the reduction in pollution, and thus rain, is one more factor leading to the loss of vegetation in the region.
So does this mean you should break out the Aqua Net hairspray? Not at all. The scientists do not recommend increasing the output of dangerous pollutants, and in fact say it is necessary to continue the decrease. In addition, the study urges more action, such as halting deforestation, in order to decrease carbon dioxide emissions.
Does this study surprise you? Are scientists just starting to figure out how Mother Nature and human activity impact the earth? Does this story make you apathetic? Confused? Or inspired to heed the scientists' recommendations that we keep reducing pollution?
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Maybe they have a no raccoon policy.
I think this just goes to show how little we really understand about all this. There are so many moving parts that the law of unintended consequences keeps popping up every time we take a step.