Black Carbon

WFPL-FM (89.3) (NPR; Louisville, Ky., Nov. 1) -- U. of I. engineering professor Tami Bond says that when black carbon gets into the atmosphere, it ends up in clouds. These clouds usually reflect the sunlight and help cool the planet, but something else happens when they contain more and more black carbon. “I think that everybody has had the experience of walking across a black parking lot on a hot day,” Bond says. “The asphalt absorbs light and puts it into the atmosphere, and that’s why you feel hot. And that’s what black carbon is doing as it’s floating in the atmosphere.”