Nov 2 (Reuters) - Air pollution, a global scourge that kills millions of people a year, is shielding us from the full force of the sun. "It's this Catch-22," said Patricia Quinn, an atmospheric chemist at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), speaking about cleaning up sulphur pollution globally. "If you implement technologies to reduce air pollution, this will accelerate – very significantly – global warming in the short term." The Chinese and Indian environment ministries didn't immediately respond to requests for comment on the effects of pollution unmasking. As the implications of the pollution unmasking become more apparent, experts are casting around for methods to counter the associated warming.

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Persons: poring, Patricia Quinn, Paulo Artaxo, Xi Jinping, Xi, El, Yangyang Xu, Xu, unmasking, Laura Wilcox, COVID, Sergey Osipov, Michael Diamond, Jake Spring, David Stanway, Sakshi Dayal, Katy Daigle Organizations: U.S . National Oceanic, Atmospheric Administration, NOAA, Reuters, World Health Organization, U.S . Clean, National People's, China Meteorological Administration, El Nino, M University, Britain's University of Reading, India Meteorological Department, India, Clean, Programme, King Abdullah University of Science, Technology, Florida State University, Thomson Locations: India, China, Beijing, 10.34C, Texas, Chongqing, Wuhan, SO2, heatwaves, Xinjiang, INDIA, Europe, Northern China, U.S, Saudi Arabia, Sao Paulo, Singapore, New Delhi