SO2 only affects the short-term, and it kills the ozone

In the rush to industrialize, China used coal plants without filters. Unfiltered coal smoke contains sulfur. And that air-borne sulfur blocked the sun's rays from ever reaching the Earth's surface. But before you start burning brimstone to save the polar bears, think about this. Sulfur containing chemicals also cause acid rain and contribute to toxic smogs. That's why Chinese, and most other nations' power plants now install scrubbers to remove the sulfur from the smoke. Sulfur's effect is short-lived. It drops out of the atmosphere after a few months to years, whereas carbon dioxide can stay in the atmosphere for centuries. That means the carbon dioxide keeps insulating the Earth long after the sulfur is no longer blocking the sunlight. This isn't the first time industrial booms have masked the greenhouse effect. After World War II, industrial production soared, and sulfur slowed global warming, Kaufmann said. Some have even suggested pumping sulfur into the atmosphere to act as a band-aid to climate change. But other research by Simone Tilmes of the National Center for Atmospheric Research has suggested that sulfur compounds would react with ozone high in the atmosphere and slow the healing of the hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica.