Everything is all our fault

Yes, we're bastards.

West's pollution 'led to African droughts'

Scientists in Australia and Canada say that pollution from western countries may have caused the droughts which ravaged Africa's Sahel region in the 1970s and 1980s.

...

The research says that sulphur dioxide from factories in Europe and the United States has cooled the Northern Hemisphere, driving the tropical rain belt south - away from the Sahel.

But if sulfur causes cooling, and carbon dioxide (greenhouse gas) causes warming, do the two cancel? Which rules? Which is it?

I am soooooo confused.

Or maybe it's the "science" that's confused. At least one of the researchers has the courage to admit "[i]t's still speculative, and the model isn't very refined, but it's very interesting."