Bangladesh, Sept. 10 -- Scientists are warning that falling sulphur pollution -- a side effect of decades of clean-air policies -- may be accelerating global warming by stripping away a cooling effect that had long masked the true scale of the climate crisis, reports BBC.

Burning fossil fuels releases two very different pollutants. Carbon dioxide traps heat in the atmosphere.

But sulphur dioxide forms tiny reflective particles called sulphate aerosols, which bounce sunlight back into space, acting as a partial brake on warming.

As clean-air regulations across Europe, North America, and China have sharply cut sulphur emissions, that brake is weakening -- exposing the full force of greenhouse gas warming that had been partially hidden f...