"We have all heard how a butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon may cause storms in far off places. But it seems that environmental effects can go in the other direction too - reductions in air pollution in North America have led to severe droughts in the Amazon rainforest, according to a new study.
In 2005, the Amazon suffered one of the worst droughts of the past century. Rivers ran so low that they were unnavigable to shipping, and thousands of forest fires raged.
El Niño effects are usually suspected, but there was a problem - there were no El Niño effects that year.
Peter Cox of the University of Exeter, UK, wondered if changes in sulphate particles in the atmosphere could be responsible.
Falling pollution
Sulphates, largely produced from coal-burning power plants, are known to reflect sunlight back into space, cooling the land and ocean below, and counteracting some of heating from greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide."
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