In a new study conducted by German scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI), the “settled science” of global warming becomes a bit more unsettled.

Bjorn Stevens, Director of the “Atmosphere in the Earth System” program at the MPI, has published results that state the effect of aerosol emissions on the atmosphere are actually a lot smaller than previously claimed.

Aerosol emissions are responsible for a cooling effect on the atmosphere that can somewhat offset the heating effect from CO2 emissions as they reflect solar energy back into space rather than back onto the Earth’s surface, the study finds.

What makes this finding so important is that, if there is less of a cooling effect, then there must be less of a heating effect.

Much less, in fact, according to researcher Nic Lewis. Using Stevens' new data, Lewis found that the equilibrium climate sensitivity falls to a staggering 120% less than the models used by the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

This, basically, guts the theory of catastrophic climate change, where the rate of climate change exceeds our ability to keep up, pulling the rug out from under the arguments used by alarmists to justify a multitude of pesky regulations meant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

If these results can hold up in the scientific community, then the mass hysteria that is global warming may finally be defeated.