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A worldwide treaty to protect stratospheric ozone is in part responsible for the slowdown in global warming observed during the past decade, researchers conclude in a paper published this week (Nat. Geosci. 2013, DOI: 10.1038/ngeo1999). The paper could represent an important response to skeptics of human-caused climate change, who contend that the hiatus in global temperature increases over the past 15 years shows that people aren’t affecting Earth’s climate. In the study, an international group of researchers examined global-warming trends during the past century using statistical analyses. They determined that the lower rate of global warming seen since the 1990s partially results from the reduction in chlorofluorocarbon production and use required by the Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer. CFCs, once widely used as refrigerants, are potent greenhouse gases as well as ozone depleters. The researchers also find that changes in rice cultivation practices in Asia that curbed emissions of methane, another greenhouse gas, also contributed to the lower rate of warming in recent years.
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