May 15, 2004

THE DIMMING:

Globe Grows Darker as Sunshine Diminishes 10% to 37% (KENNETH CHANG, 5/13/04, NY Times)

In the second half of the 20th century, the world became, quite literally, a darker place.

Defying expectation and easy explanation, hundreds of instruments around the world recorded a drop in sunshine reaching the surface of Earth, as much as 10 percent from the late 1950's to the early 90's, or 2 percent to 3 percent a decade. In some regions like Asia, the United States and Europe, the drop was even steeper. In Hong Kong, sunlight decreased 37 percent.

No one is predicting that it may soon be night all day, and some scientists theorize that the skies have brightened in the last decade as the suspected cause of global dimming, air pollution, clears up in many parts of the world.

Yet the dimming trend — noticed by a handful of scientists 20 years ago but dismissed then as unbelievable — is attracting wide attention. Research on dimming and its implications for weather, water supplies and agriculture will be presented next week in Montreal at a joint meeting of American and Canadian geological groups.


The lights went out all over the world in 1914, but we'll get them back on eventually.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 15, 2004 7:33 AM
Comments

Global Dimming? Give me a break, it was as hot as blue blazes and as bright as could be in Kentucky last summer.

Posted by: bartman at May 15, 2004 8:56 AM

It also begs the question. If there is Global Dimming, can there be Global Warming?

Posted by: bartman at May 15, 2004 8:56 AM

Haven't you heard. The pet theory now is that global warming is going to cause a new ice age.

Posted by: David Cohen at May 15, 2004 9:52 AM

And we hirsute pray it be so.

Posted by: oj at May 15, 2004 10:03 AM

Ah yes, the new Ice Age. You probably remember all those junk-science paperbacks predicting it in the 'Seventies, some of which advocated the same UN industrial regulation now proposed by some global warming activities - because we know government can stop nature.

Posted by: John Barrett Jr. at May 15, 2004 10:24 AM

That's Science? Sounds like a High School project. What they'll learn in Montreal is how much they don't know.

If their "observations" are eventually substantiated over time and the use of reliable sensors over a wider area, isn't it really just Mother Nature seeking equilibriam ... without our interference?

Posted by: genecis at May 15, 2004 12:07 PM

This doesn't nake sense. Dimming of that magnitude would certainly have had a widespread effect on agriculture and weather patterns.

Posted by: Robert Duquette at May 15, 2004 12:27 PM

My first thought, too, when I heard this report, Robert.

Besides, there still isn't any global surface temperature collection network. We have no idea whether the surface is warming, because we have not yet looked.

Posted by: Harry Eagar at May 15, 2004 4:40 PM

Harry makes a very good point, often simply ignored by the "all-but-certain-warming-crowd". Causation aside, we seem to know more about the warming of some high altitude atmospheric spots than surfaces around the ENTIRE world.

Any way, How did W manage to steal the sunlight from us all? Next, on 60 minitues.

Posted by: MG at May 15, 2004 5:19 PM
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