Temperatures rising in the Med as pollutants drop
Scientific research has revealed that the Mediterranean region is warming up to 1.5 times faster than the rest of the world.
The question why this is happening, however, remains unanswered.
The study, published in late July in Nature by an international scientific team including Greek participation, noted that the key cause for the Mediterranean region’s quicker warming in recent decades is pollution, notably a substantial drop in sulfur particle concentrations.
More specifically, the temperature in the Mediterranean has risen by 0.4 Celsius every decade in the period 1981-2020, while 0.28C per decade is the global average on land.
At the same time, suspended sulfur particles in the last few decades has been reduced by up to 80%, from 10 µg/m3 in the 1990s to 2-2.5 µg/m3 today in Athens.
