Soot’s contribution to climate change bigger than reported last year by IPCC

(Photo of coal plant emissions from Flickr and and photographer hAdamsky)

News Update 3: A new study from Texas A&M suggest that soot, once it reaches the atmosphere, combines with other chemicals, especially sulfuric acid from power plants, and then inhibits the formation of clouds. It also helps form a brown haze that acts as insulation and keeps temperatures warm at night. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, said the interference with cloud formation could mean as much as 20% less rain in Houston, Texas. This study follows one in March, from California and Iowa scientists, that said soot could be the second only to CO2 as a contributor to global warming and adds 4 times as much as reported last year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (Sources: Greenwire, Houston Chronicle