Masking global warming

China’s rapid expansion and vast use of coal-fired power plans may have helped conceal and deal the true impact of global warming, according to new scientific research. In a new paper, scientists say large sulfur emissions from China’s coal-fired power plants may have masked the true reach of climate change but the concealment effect will be short-lived.The study says increased sulfur poullution from China may have in fact helped keep the earth cooler in recent years.

“People normally just focus on the warming effect of CO2, but during the Chinese economic expansion there was a huge increase in sulfur emissions,” the AP quoted Robert K. Kaufmann of Boston University, lead author of the study, as saying.