That bit’s actually sort of true albeit phrased in a horrible misleading and overly broad way. Certain pollutants, sulfides mainly IIRC, increase the albedo of the atmosphere and so reduced the impact of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses.
This is, of course, at the cost of causing toxic acid rain and other problems, hence why there’s been a concerted effort to reduce or eliminate them wherever possible. I believe they also tend to go along with the kinds of pollution that really fuck up the surrounding area and make it unlivable with smog, too, so there’s also an immediate pragmatic reason for eliminating them even when “this has serious widespread negative consequences that directly endangers infrastructure, agriculture, and the environment” isn’t enough to convince authorities to take action.
If you’re old enough to remember “acid rain” being a big topic in the 90s that kind of fell off the radar, like the “hole in the ozone layer”, this is why. The pollutants causing it have been significantly reduced across the world (as have the chemicals responsible for punching a hole in the ozone layer).
That bit’s actually sort of true albeit phrased in a horrible misleading and overly broad way. Certain pollutants, sulfides mainly IIRC, increase the albedo of the atmosphere and so reduced the impact of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses.
This is, of course, at the cost of causing toxic acid rain and other problems, hence why there’s been a concerted effort to reduce or eliminate them wherever possible. I believe they also tend to go along with the kinds of pollution that really fuck up the surrounding area and make it unlivable with smog, too, so there’s also an immediate pragmatic reason for eliminating them even when “this has serious widespread negative consequences that directly endangers infrastructure, agriculture, and the environment” isn’t enough to convince authorities to take action.
If you’re old enough to remember “acid rain” being a big topic in the 90s that kind of fell off the radar, like the “hole in the ozone layer”, this is why. The pollutants causing it have been significantly reduced across the world (as have the chemicals responsible for punching a hole in the ozone layer).
Iirc improvements to catalytic converters are a huge part of what reduced the pollutants causing acid rain
Damn! Yeah sucks we lost all that good pollution.
Anyway, let’s not get distracted. There’s still patches of snow and rain forest.
If he’s talking about aerosols, sure I guess….oh great, the porks will claim that they only pollute for our own good, aren’t they?