50 years ago, scientists puzzled over a slight global cooling
Earth’s cooling climate, Science News, November 15, 1969 — The average temperature for the entire Earth rose gradually from the 1880s until the early 1940s. At that time, a cooling trend suddenly set in which is continuing today.… The amount of dust and other particulate matter in the atmosphere has increased dramatically in recent decades, a change that could counteract the thermal effect of carbon dioxide buildup. Update From 1940 to about 1975, the average global surface temperature decreased by about 0.1 degrees Celsius, interrupting a decades-long warming trend even as carbon emissions continued to rise. Many scientists thought the cooling trend was possibly caused by sulfate particles from the burning of fossil fuels that can scatter sunlight and reduce atmospheric warming (SN: 11/21/09, p. 5). That hunch proved correct: When the United States and other countries began to lower sulfur emissions in the 1970s to reduce acid rain and respiratory illnesses, the...