Dust from Asia pollutes US, Canada air: study | Bangkok Post: news
Dust and aerosol pollution from Asia travels across the ocean and sullies the air in the United States and Canada, possibly worsening the effects of climate change, a NASA-backed study showed Thursday.
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About half of the aerosol particles in North America come from foreign sources, and most are just from naturally occurring dust rather than from burning coal or other fossil fuels, said the research published in the journal Science.
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Since dust emissions could rise as a result of increasingly dry weather, drought and desertification brought on by climate change, efforts by North America alone to curb pollution would not be enough, the study said.
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Aerosols can have a cooling effect by reflecting sunlight back to space. The researchers found that imported particles account for one third of the reduction in solar radiation, or solar dimming, over North America.
"Globally this can mask some of the warming we expect from greenhouse gases," said co-author Lorraine Remer, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Maryland.
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