Another negative climate feedback: Warmer plants cool the planet

Another powerful negative-feedback mechanism which acts to reduce the effects of global warming has been identified, as scientists say that rising temperatures cause plants to emit higher levels of planet-cooling aerosols.

“Aerosol effects on climate are one of the main uncertainties in climate models,” explains Pauli Paasonen of Helsinki uni. “Understanding this mechanism could help us reduce those uncertainties and make the models better.”

Aerosols – suspended particles – in the atmosphere have various effects. Black carbon soot absorbs sunlight and heats the world up, but most other kinds of aerosol tend to cool things down, mostly by presenting nuclei for clouds to form on and so reflecting heat back into space. There is widespread scientific agreement, even among firmly pro-warmist researchers, that aerosols have powerful effects – but just how much aerosol can be expected in the atmosphere of the future is not at all well known, and current models aren’t thought to handle this factor at all well.

2013-04-30 10:45:54

Source: http://www.climatechangedispatch.com/11208-another-negative-climate-feedback-warmer-plants-cool-the-planet.html