Global Dimming: As if we didn't already have enough to worry about

I just watched a Nova program on something I'd never heard of before: Global Dimming. It turns out that atmospheric pollution has been reducing the sunlight received on earth by 10 to 20%. This has not only caused serious ecological disasters like the Ethiopian famine, but it's also been masking the real effects of Global Warming for decades.

So now as we are actually successful in reducing air pollution, we are starting to see global warming accelerate. Climate readings taken during the grounding of air traffic after 9/11 showed a 1 degree Celsius increase in temperatures in just three days -- just by removing the jet contrails from the atmosphere. Further reductions in particulate emissions will likely lead to even more dramatic spikes in global temperatures.

What this means is that we've not only been warming the planet, we've been warming the planet under a kind of pressure cooker. The solar dimming from pollution damps down the warming effects of greenhouse gasses, allowing for much more buildup before any significant changes occur. Now those particles are like the cork in a shaken bottle of champagne. We can just barely hold things together as long as that cork's in place, but god help us if it ever goes away.

:scared:

More here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_dimming

:shrug:

:P

Too bad the joke doesn't make up for the scary shit.

the artificial cloud cover that is being so deliberately generated by jet aircraft, so obvious to anyone who cares to look up. No, that shit is just kooky. It makes "us" look weird--and we certainly cannot have that!

:evilgrin:

would be more people out of work, more raping of the treasury to bail out airlines, more other bad stuff.

And just a few damned if we do.

Which is the problem.... people will not give up anything to keep us from destroying this little blue ball spinning in the black darkness of space.

So we're gonna ruin the whole thing for everybody. That is a problem, eh?

Jet contrails are listed as a primary source of global dimming. At one point, a scientist points out the constant "web" of contrails over southern California.

It never describes the phenomena that so many of us are worried about: the chemtrails as opposed to the contrails.

And it intermixes the discussion - when it talks about the 7700 miles of crisscrossed contrails - I don't know if those are the more naturally occurring contrails or the manmade chemtrails

And Nevada newspapers cover it from time to time

They are really an advanced government project to help mitigate Global Warming!

Come on people, get with the program!