Global dimming warming brightening

A solution to global warming – pollute more!

Research presented at a major European science meeting adds to other evidence that cleaner air is letting more solar energy through to the Earth’s surface.

Other studies show that increased water vapour in the atmosphere is reinforcing the impact of man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

[…]

Between the 1950s and 1980s, the amount of solar energy penetrating through the atmosphere to the Earth’s surface appeared to be declining, by about 2% per decade.

This trend received some publicity under the term “global dimming”.

But in the 1980s, it appears to have reversed, according to two papers published last year in the journal Science.

[,,,]

The reversal of “global dimming” has been proposed in some circles as an alternative explanation for climatic change, removing the need to invoke human emissions of greenhouse gases.

Dr Wild dismissed this picture. His analysis suggests that “global dimming” and the man-made greenhouse effect may have cancelled each other out until the early 1980s, but now “global brightening” is adding to the impact of human greenhouse emissions.

“There is always this argument that maybe the whole temperature rise wasn’t due to greenhouse warming but due to solar variations,” he told the BBC News website.

“During the solar dimming we had really no temperature rise. And only when the solar dimming disappeared could we really see what is going on in terms of the greenhouse effect, and that is only starting in the 1980s.”

Just in case you thought you were alone in your confusion.

FILED UNDER: Climate Change, Science & Technology, , ,
Kate McMillan
About Kate McMillan
Kate McMillan is the proprietor of small dead animals, which has won numerous awards including Best Conservative Blog and Best Canadian Blog. She contributed nearly 300 pieces to OTB between November 2004 and June 2007. Follow her on Twitter @katewerk.

Comments

  1. floyd says:

    too late; “global warming” already has political traction.the truth [whatever it is] is irrelevant.

  2. Mark says:

    I disagree, floyd. It has held considerable traction with the media, but ordinary Americans are not too concerned with it (36 % are worried about global warming in a recent Gallup poll available here.

  3. McGehee says:

    “Global brightening” sounds like a setup for a Gallagher punchline — like the joke where he says he wishes there was a knob on the TV to increase the intelligence:

    “I tried the one marked “brightness” but it didn’t work.”

  4. floyd says:

    mark,i hope you’re right

  5. RJN says:

    The Sun is not supposed to be a cause of global warming. Hello to modern times in the airheaded leftist neverland.

  6. spacemonkey says:

    Yay, scientists are so smrt.

  7. Ben There says:

    Whoever wants a Federal grant has to come up with the baloney quotient.

  8. Maggie says:

    Ben There….you got that right! It’s all about research money. I say we stop all funding for this crap and make them find a cure for stupidity. I have a few candidates in mind who could really use the help. “Stuck on stupid” is no longer a catchy phrase – it seems to have reached pandemic levels.