They do affect wind and rainfall, and they do tend to merge into long heat islands. I think over time it exerts an effect. So do big hydraulic projects like using the Aral Sea for irrigation. That had a very long term effect.
I grew up in LA. In the 50's when I was little, it would rain once or maybe twice each summer. By the 70's, that stopped. But the pollution was enough to make tears run down my cheeks. After they controlled it, the stinging eyes stopped.
I think that was about the first time I saw LA, when flying from Phoenix to Portland. This yellow smoke was spilling over the mountains, in tendrils like some horror movie, then coalescing to a solid smoke. Here we are flying in to switch planes and visibility is almost nil. And in 1969 the Cuyahoga River caught fire, not for the first time. People forget that there was a real need for pollution control.
They do affect wind and rainfall, and they do tend to merge into long heat islands. I think over time it exerts an effect. So do big hydraulic projects like using the Aral Sea for irrigation. That had a very long term effect.
I grew up in LA. In the 50's when I was little, it would rain once or maybe twice each summer. By the 70's, that stopped. But the pollution was enough to make tears run down my cheeks. After they controlled it, the stinging eyes stopped.
I think that was about the first time I saw LA, when flying from Phoenix to Portland. This yellow smoke was spilling over the mountains, in tendrils like some horror movie, then coalescing to a solid smoke. Here we are flying in to switch planes and visibility is almost nil. And in 1969 the Cuyahoga River caught fire, not for the first time. People forget that there was a real need for pollution control.