14 DAY TRIAL // A team of researchers writing in today's issue of the scientific journal Nature Geoscience say that, at least as far as preventing hurricanes from forming goes, lowering air pollution levels might not be such a good idea.
Apparently, having loads of so-called anthropogenic aerosols (i.e. particles emitted by various industries and even households) floating about in the atmosphere helps lower hurricane frequency by reducing surface temperatures in the North Atlantic region, The Australian reports.
Aerosols lower surface temperatures in these regions by keeping sun rays from reaching the ocean, the same source informs us.
What's more, this source of air pollution has been documented to encourage rain by seeding clouds, meaning that their presence in the air also helps reduce the strength of whatever tropical storms might form in this part of the world.
“Anthropogenic aerosols lowered the frequency of tropical storms over the twentieth century.”
“However, sharp declines in anthropogenic aerosol levels over the North Atlantic at the end of the twentieth century allowed the frequency of tropical storms to increase,” the researchers write in the Abstract for their paper.