A Forgotten Legacy of George H. W. Bush

He was an architect of one of the most important environmental achievements of the past three decades.

 Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano is belching out sulfur dioxide at potentially dangerous levels

SO2 is typically locked inside magma when it’s far below ground. But when it begins to rise to the surface, the magma belches out its SO2. “The process is similar to what happens when a bottle of soda is opened,” Ashley Davies, a volcanologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, explained in a NASA release. “There’s usually an increase in sulfur dioxide output right before lava reaches the surface, as the gas escapes from the ascending magma.”

 Sulfur Dioxide Damages Lungs, And Scott Pruitt Is Letting More Of It In Our Air

Nearly a quarter of the nation’s coal-fired power plants in 2017 lacked pollution controls limiting emissions of lung-damaging sulfur dioxide, even though some of their counterparts have been using the controls for almost 40 years.

Are Volcanoes or Humans Harder on the Atmosphere?

This argument that human-caused carbon emissions are merely a drop in the bucket compared to greenhouse gases generated by volcanoes has been making its way around the rumor mill for years. And while it may sound plausible, the science just doesn’t back it up.

Cap and Trade Curbed Acid Rain: 7 Reasons Why It Can Do The Same For Climate Change

The H.W. Bush administration and Congress took action to reduce SO2 emissions because of the acidification of lakes and streams and destruction of forests in the Northeast and Canada.

How an Uncommon Mineral Can Reduce the Climate Impact of an Eruption

Sulfur's impact on climate really stems from the reaction of sulfur dioxide and water vapor in the atmosphere. This produces tiny droplets (aerosols) of sulfuric acid. This sulfuric acid can produce acid rain, like what we've seen from the burning of coal in industrialized areas. However, that isn't the biggest threat that sulfur poses to the Earth's climate. Sulfuric acid in the stratosphere will reflect solar energy back into space (i.e., increase the Earth's albedo), thus lowering the temperature for the lower atmosphere in which we (and everything else) lives.

India is overtaking China as the biggest emitter of this deadly air pollutant

Now, here’s more bad news on the pollution front: the country is passing China as the world’s biggest emitter of deadly man-made sulfur dioxide (SO2).

New Process Squeezes Sulfur Out of Diesel Fuel

Sulfur emissions cause acid rain but a chemical reaction can remove almost all of the substance.

Soils Start Comeback after Acid Rain Damage

Cuts to emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides help restore natural balance.

Whatever Happened to Acid Rain?

Acid rain occurs when sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides—gases released by the burning of fossil fuel—form acidic compounds in the atmosphere.These fall back to earth in rain, snow, or sleet or as dry particles or gases. (At high altitudes and along coastlines, bits of acid suspended in clouds or fog pose an additional threat.)