Scientists have struggled to explain the rapid acceleration of global warming over the past 15 years, with temperatures now regularly breaking records.

It is “among the biggest questions in climate science today”, said atmospheric science professors Laura Wilcox and Bjørn H. Samset on The Conversation . Causes suggested by researchers include a clean-up of sulphur emissions from global shipping , as well as changes in cloud cover.

But “one factor that has not been well quantified” are the “monumental efforts” by east Asian countries, particularly China, to combat air pollution . A recent study by Wilcox and Samset claims that east Asia’s “aerosol clean-up” is likely a “key reason” for the surge. The polluted air “may have been masking the full effects of global warming”.

The ‘st

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