A rise in sulphur emissions attributable mainly to new coal-fired power plants in Asia, and China in particular, may have helped to stabilize global temperatures over the past decade. Sulphur aerosols reflect solar radiation back into space. Robert Kaufmann at Boston University in Massachusetts and his colleagues conducted a statistical analysis of factors that enhanced or offset climate warming between 1998 and 2008, including atmospheric circulation trends and greenhouse-gas levels. The results suggest that rising sulphur emissions, along with natural climate variability, explain the hiatus in warming.
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