Here's a conversation starter for you (try it out at the dinner table this holiday season… or maybe not): According to a new study published in the science magazine, Nature, air pollution may actually deter global warming and clean air may accelerate it. Bollocks, you say? Well it actually makes sense: Particulates in the atmosphere (called aerosols) caused by smokestacks, charcoal grills and other human activities, absorb and diffuse sunlight, thereby having a cooling effect.

Aerosols “dim the sky over land and sea, and so cool the planet,” says a summary in Nature. While the US and Europe have managed to dramatically curtail their industrial aerosol emissions in the last decade, global emissions of the particlate matter is growing due to Asia’s rapid industrial growth. Unfortunately these same pollutants that are slowing the rate of climate change also cause nasty respiratory diseases. Surely humanity can come up with a cleaner way to offset the climate crisis.

Photo credit: www.utexas.edu