"Clean air" might've been a culprit behind the massive warming the Earth is having to endure, experts speculate

The past few months have been a frustrating time. From a string of days working hard to usurp each other's "hottest-ever" titles to an El Niño phase naturally adding a ton of heat to the air and oceans, conditions haven't been looking too great for much of the planet's ecosystem.

While there is no doubt anthropogenic climate change is the main contributor to this unprecedented blistering, some scientists think things might still not be adding up. Even with Niño under consideration, the tremendous amount of heating we're witnessing hints at some unseen players.

According to the European climate agency Copernicus, July was 0.3°C hotter than ever recorded. While that might seem insignificant at first, adding this level of warmth to the entire world encompasses a gargantuan amount of energy, whose effects are endured firsthand by our oceans and its ecosystems.

Scientists have pointed out two John Does in this baking case, one of which is startling. Experts think the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai underwater volcano eruption in 2022 could've added a ton of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, making it a prime suspect. The other, surprisingly, is clean air.

The advent and adoption of new international shipping rules in 2020 cut out a ton of dirty fuel traditionally used in maritime shipping processes. While that seems fine and dandy on an overall, the routes also witnessed a massive reduction in sulphur emissions into the atmosphere.

Sulphur, while incredibly toxic, is extremely reflective. When it mixes in the clouds, it bounces back a ton of the Sun's radiation, allowing less heat to be stuck in the Earth. Therefore, reduced sulphur pollution also inadvertently and unfortunately meant more warning in these shipping routes.

The volcano theory, on the other hand, is fairly straightforward. The underwater Hunga explosion in the South Pacific spewed about 165 million tons of water vapour into the atmosphere, which is an incredibly notorious heat-sink.

Non-peer reviewed studies have shown that all the belched water vapour from the eruption could add 1.5°C of warming in some places, and even introduce up to 1°C of cooling elsewhere. Add in all the sulphur also released in the event, and the effects become highly unpredictable and dangerous.

Apart from these two obvious accomplices, scientists also think a change in solar activity, jet stream and ocean currents would have led to the gradual warming of the planet.

"Climate change and El Niño can explain it all," notes climate scientist, Friederike Otto. "That doesn't mean other factors didn't play a role. But we should definitely expect to see this again without the other factors being present."