In the article Does Air Pollution Help Reduction Global Warming by Evan Galloway, the author begins by naming some of the many contributors to global warming. One example he uses is a fossil fuel we call coal. Galloway goes on to describe what is released from coal when it is burned (i.e. carbon dioxide and sulfate) and its effect on our atmosphere. When sulfate is released into the air, it forms aerosols that contribute to our pollution and acid rain. (Galloway, 2009) Lina M. Mercado of the UK's Center for Ecology and Hydrology and other colleagues have discovered new evidence suggesting that aerosols could actually help reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the world. air. The new research presented by Mercado shows that aerosols scatter light throughout forests, exposing more plants to light and increasing photosynthesis in the process. This new research sheds some light on the policies already put in place by the government to reduce pollution and could be contradictory. (Galloway, 2009) Researchers predicted that the effects of aerosols in the environment would cause global attenuation (a decrease in the amount of sunlight reaching the earth). These predictions of this effect turned out to be correct and have long been taken into account. But people began to notice that global mitigation could also have a second effect. Less light meant less photosynthesis, which reduced the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by plants. Assuming this second effect is true, in addition to reducing acid rain and air pollution, reducing aerosols would help improve global warming. The overall effect of atmospheric aerosols was to produce more carbon uptake; the reason is more complicated than overall gradation...... middle of paper ...... we need to take into consideration how we use these products and think about how they affect the lives around us . The question I ask myself is: if aerosols are such a major contributor to acid rain and air pollution, why aren't people more informed? This is the first time I've heard that aerosols are such a problem, or should I say there are too many of them. I'm also wondering, because this article is 5 years old, is this still a huge problem or not. I see people in stores buying more and more products that contain aerosols, more than ever. And while this remains a huge problem, I hope we can one day reach that point where global mitigation begins and the large amounts of carbon dioxide used decline for good. References Galloway, E. (2009, May). Does air pollution help reduce global warming? Science today. Retrieved from Today's Science database.