Deep frying food is making cities cloudier, study says

While it’s widely known that fried foods aren’t healthy to consume, new research shows they could also affect the air we breathe. According to Business Insider, a recent study indicated that the use of deep fryers could be making cities cloudier.

European scientific journal Nature Communications found that when food is being fried, fatty acids are released into the air. These fatty acids, which are particularly sticky, coat atmospheric molecules, allowing them to last longer and travel farther, absorbing more moisture and air and ultimately forming clouds with a lifespan between two and 24 hours.

“The molecules given off by deep fat frying is likely to have more of an effect on clouds than previously thought,” co-lead researcher Adam Squires told Business Insider, adding that low-level cloud cover could lead to cooler temperatures on the ground. Alas, this is no permanent fix for Earth’s rising temperatures.

“I’m no climate scientist (ahem) but ‘help with global warming’ definitely a stretch from what we said (ignoring the CO2 you actually produce to fuel your cooker!),” Squires wrote on Twitter.

Good try, anyway.

Some positive changes you can make to help end global warming include carpooling, recycling, conserving water, turning off your lights, and avoiding products with excessive packaging. Otherwise, rising temperatures could prove fatal for apples, tomatoes, and these 15 other foods.