Atmospheric SO2: Principal Control Knob Governing Earth's Temperatures
An examination of the effects of SO2 aerosols in the Earth's atmosphere shows that they are responsible for all of the changes that have occurred in Earth's temperatures since the Roman warming period. and, by extension, the cause of all of the Ice Ages throughout Earth's history. They are primarily of volcanic origin, but since circa 1950, anthropogenic aerosol emissions began rising, peaking at ~ 136 Megatons in 1979, and, because of their cooling effect, fears of a return to Little Ice Age conditions. However, because of Acid Rain and Health concerns, global Clean Air efforts to reduce SO2 emissions were instituted in the early 1970's, and temperatures began to rise because of the cleaner, less polluted air.This warming was attributed to the accumulation of CO2 in Earth's atmosphere, but the analysis presented in this paper shows that the expected warming from the reduction in SO2 aerosol emissions precisely matches the actual rise in average global temperatures, leaving NO room for any of the hypothesized warming from "greenhouse" gasses. The warming is simply an unfortunate side effect of global Clean Air efforts.