Soot

Soot. The dirty, dark [particles:grains] clog lungs, causing asthma and other chronic breathing problems. Turns out cleaning up such soot, along with certain other types of air pollution, could help slow sea-level rise too. That's according to new research published in Nature Climate Change. Researchers [looked:saw] at soot and various greenhouse gases that don't last very long in the atmosphere. Methane, ozone in the lower altitudes, and the factory-made refrigerants [known:name] as HFCs. Previous studies have shown that cutting these types of air pollution could slow climate change, buying time to bring carbon dioxide emissions under control. The new research shows that such cuts would also significantly slow the [rate:pace] of sea-level rise by more than 20 percent per year, which could keep the rise under a meter by the end of the century.