Ozone clouds the issue of climate change

摘要

Air pollutants like ozone are fundamentally changing the way clouds form, by destroying organic compounds that usually coat airborne particles and slow droplet formation. This newly discovered mechanism could be having "large climate effects", according to the researchers who discovered it. The trouble is nobody knows whether the effect will speed up global warming or slow it down. The Earth is shaded by clouds, which help to moderate global warming. The new findings will add to concerns over how little we know about the processes by which they form, and how they are influenced by human activity. Clouds are already the biggest uncertainty in forecasting the pace of climate change.