Research reveals volcanoes mask warming

BOULDER — A team led by the University of Colorado-Boulder looking for clues about why Earth did not warm as much as scientists expected between 2000 and 2010 now thinks the culprits are hiding in plain sight: dozens of volcanoes spewing sulfur dioxide.

The study results essentially exonerate Asia, including India and China, two countries that are estimated to have increased their industrial sulfur dioxide emissions by about 60 percent from 2000 to 2010 through coal burning, said Ryan Neely, lead author of the study, who led the research as part of his CU-Boulder doctoral thesis.

Small amounts of sulfur dioxide emissions…