The world’s climate is changing at a rate of knots – but it’s not just due to the emissions of carbon dioxide and methane. Reduced pollution increasing temperatures
Sulphur in the air is known to cause air pollution and acid rain, and is linked to between 212,000 and 595,000 premature deaths a year and 14 million cases of childhood asthma. The clearer air allows more of the sun’s heat to be absorbed by the oceans, meaning that the waters in the busiest shipping lanes on the planet are warming to unprecedented levels. This year the highest temperature in that part of the ocean was 1.2C above average on June 10; the next highest was 0.6C above normal.
The change is most noticeable in the north Atlantic Ocean, but other bodies of water are seeing marine heatwaves of their own. However, the big story of this eruption was that the water above the volcano was literally launched into the stratosphere, where it stays to this day. Water is a greenhouse gas like carbon dioxide, so more of that in the stratosphere warms the surface of the planet.
The warm tongue of waters we typically see in the central and eastern Pacific is already in effect and the atmosphere is now re-enforcing that pattern. Our planet as a whole has seen its hottest start to June on record and daily anomalies have already reached the oft-mentioned 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures.