Why India is Warming More Slowly

This week the Washington Post took a closer look at the surprising reasons parts of Earth are warming more slowly. The article starts with an animated globe which spins to identify three locations, East Antartica, India and the North Atlantic, where heating is happening more slowly than elsewhere.

Since the middle of the 20th Century the Earth has warmed by around 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit). However in parts of India, East Antartica and the North Atlantic temperatures have not risen at the same pace. Ironically the reasons that these areas of the world are not experiencing the same degree of global heating as elsewhere is because of human pollution and climate change.

The Washington Post article examines the reasons why the three identified locations are seeing slower than average warming. For example, the depleted ozone layer over East Antarctica means that it is less protected from the sun's ultraviolet light. In India high levels of air pollution contribute to higher than normal levels of fine particulate in the air, blocking and scattering sunlight. In the North Atlantic the melting of Greenland's ice is leading to the cooling of the ocean and tovdecreasing salinity.