I wonder how many people realize Minnesota’s carbon-free policy could actually contribute to global warming, at least the part aiming to phase out coal-fired power plants like Boswell in Cohasset and Xcel’s Sherco in Becker.

An April 2014 article in Scientific American said we need to be careful about reducing the particles ejected into the atmosphere by coal-fired power plants, that too much reduction could result in not enough of the sun’s heating rays being blocked, and that this, too, could contribute to global warming.

We now have evidence for the claim. Satellite data tells us that the reduction of sulfate and nitrate particles since 2000 is resulting in less sunlight being reflected back into space, contributing to global warming, as Paul Voosen explained, writing in July for Science.org.

The U.S. government (NOAA) is now getting involved in studying the reflective effects of injecting particles into the atmosphere, Science.org reported in February.

Sixty climate scientists, including retired NASA scientist James Hansen, signed on to recommend geo-engineering to make the atmosphere more reflective.

This isn’t a new concept. Ma Nature has been doing it for millennia. Witness the “year without summer” in 1816 after Mount Tambora blasted megatons of reflective particles into the atmosphere.

Consider that only about 4% of the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is man-made, according to NASA . The oceans hold 50 times as much carbon as the atmosphere and have a 40,000-mile-long volcanically active mid-ocean mountain chain potentially belching carbon dioxide, sulfur, and lots of heat, as the New York Times reported in 2016 .

Common sense should tell us that man’s tiny carbon-dioxide contribution to nature’s massive reserve isn’t going to throw us into “Thermageddon.”

There are many other reasons why man-made carbon dioxide isn’t the problem; I’d need a longer letter.

Phil Drietz

Delhi, Minnesota