A study on global warming in recent years concluded that the devastating fires of Australia, influenced more than the COVID-19 pandemic, during the year 2020.
Fires and pandemic, 2020 in Australia
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Since the global pandemic by COVID-19 began, there have been significant decreases in gas emissions, due to the lack of activity in cities. But during the same year of the beginning of the confinement, Australia suffered huge fires foresters who had the world in suspense.
The study was conducted by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in the United States. Their conclusion was that both phenomena had an effect on climate change, but one of them was much more intense, according to the scientists.
“The main culprit for 2020 climate change was not COVID-19 at all“John Fasullo, lead author of the new study, said in a statement,”It was the wildfire explosion in Australia.”
How the fires affected the climate
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In late 2019 and early 2020, huge plumes of smoke reached the stratosphere and encircled much of the southern hemisphere. Thousands of hectares were affected by the flames, releasing sulfates and other smoke particles into the atmosphere.
At the same time, cities paralyzed by confinement stopped emitting gases that created a filter for sunlight.
Both phenomena modified the global temperature, but not in the way you imagine.
The research, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, explains that the phenomenon develops contrary to what common sense would indicate, at least in the short term.
Is that the fires foresters of Australia They cooled the planet, while the paralysis of human activity warmed it.
In the case of smoke from firesWhat happens is that they generate a layer in the atmosphere, which helps to reflect the sun’s rays that try to reach the surface, returning them to space. This generated a cooling of the southern hemisphere of around 0.06 degrees Celsius, in a few months.
As for confinement, the opposite happened. By not having that gas filter, the sun’s rays managed to reach the surface, and it is estimated that by 2022, this effect will have raised the temperature gradually, by 0.05 degrees Celsius.
Investigation of fires in Australia in 2020, indicates that the power of sulfates and other particles in the atmosphere, generates abrupt changes in just months, in the climate of the entire Earth.
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