Scientists have known for a long time that aerosols cool climate by reflecting sunlight and making clouds brighter, but the new study is the first to use a global model to estimate the net effects on plant carbon intake resulting from this type of atmospheric pollution.

CNN: Study: Pollution helps plants absorb C02

In the new study biostatistician Ira Longini at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle devised a computer model to calculate the probability that such an outbreak pattern could occur without human transmission.

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