An international team of researchers has found that nitrogen emissions from fertilisers and fossil fuels have a net cooling effect on the climate.
An international team of researchers has found that nitrogen emissions from fertilisers and fossil fuels have a net cooling effect on the climate. But they warn increasing atmospheric nitrogen has further damaging effects on the environment, calling for an urgent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to halt global warming.
Published today in Nature, the paper found that reactive nitrogen released in the environment through human activities cools the climate by minus 0.34 watts per square metre. While global warming would have advanced further without the input of human-generated nitrogen, the amount would not offset the level of greenhouse gasses heating the atmosphere.
The paper was led by the Max Planck Institute in Germany and included authors from the University of Sydney. It comes one day after new data from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service indicated that Sunday, 21 July was the hottest day recorded in recent history.
Read more at: University of Sydney
Nitrogen emissions from fertilisers and fossil fuels have a net cooling effect on the climate, but researchers stress it should not be viewed as a climate solution. (Photo Credit: Pixabay)
