The Atlantic

‘Short-Lived’ Methane Could Raise Sea Levels for Another 800 Years

A new study shows that sea levels will keep increasing long after emissions leave the atmosphere.
Source: Joe Raedle / Getty

There’s a pretty story we tell ourselves about environmental problems: Once you fix them, they immediately start to improve.

Smog works like this. In cities where air quality is a problem, smog tends to worsen on weekdays, because millions of people are commuting and factories are fully productive. On weekends, when fewer people drive, the air tends to clear.

Likewise, when the country chose to address its smog problem, it got better. In 1970, Congress passed the Clean Air Act and told the EPA to start regulating air pollution. Smog across the country began to dissipate, and . Air pollution is not the problem today that it was in the 1960s and early 1970s because the United States addressed

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