Global Climate Change Heats Up Africa
It’s the cruelest of ironies: Africa, the continent that contributes the least to global climate change, is suffering the most from its effects, according to a study conducted by scientists at Great Britain’s Hadley Center, one of the world’s leading facilities for climate-change research. And here’s another irony: Part of why climate change is having a stronger effect in Africa than in developed regions of the world is that industrial pollution, although responsible for global climate change, can also provide localized protection against warming, because pollutants such as aerosol particles can help shield against the sun. The Hadley Center research is also significant because it shows that global warming is now strong enough that it can be detected over individual continents, not just over the entire planet.
