Selected Quotes from
USA TODAY, Tuesday, September 9, 1997, Science Section, Page 6D
by Tim Fiend
"In contrast to studies of global warming, an internationally coordinated experiment focuses on how some pollutants may be having a cooling effect on Earth"
LA JOLLA, Calif. - "Air pollution generated by emerging industrialized countries may be cooling the climates of those regions and having global impact comparable in size to greenhouse-effect warming.
"Concerns about potential effects of the new pollution are serious enough that 100 scientists from 12 countries are gearing up for one of the largest field studies of climate change ever conducted."
"Over the last 30 years, the scientific community has been focusing on warming. But this new question came to the fore a few years ago. Why hasn't the warming occurred that was predicted?" says Veerabhadran "Ram" Ramanathan, director of the Center for Clouds, Chemistry and Climate (C4) here at Scripps. "The role aerosols play in cooling the atmosphere is one of the biggest sources of uncertainty. This has tremendous implications for what will become of the Earth's climate."
"One of our major interests is in how the aerosols might affect the properties of clouds. If they do, then there will be an impact on climate." says co-chief scientist Paul Crutzen, director of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and the 1995 Nobel Laureate in chemistry.
"The data, which will be collected over the next two years, will influence global environmental policy for decades."
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