Global Dimming and its Effect on Climate Change

Global Dimming and its Effect on Climate Change

Global warming and its impact on climate change is a widely known consequence of both natural events and human activities. However, global dimming, the result of pollutants from fossil fuels causing clouds to reflect sunlight away from the earth, is a lesser known phenomenon that also has had an influence on climate change. As a result of global dimming, less heat and energy reaches the earth, and has been blamed by many scientists as the probable cause of the drought in Ethiopia in the 1970s and 1980s that resulted in the deaths of millions. The reasoning is that the droughts were caused because global dimming prevented ocean water in the Northern Hemisphere to attain temperatures high enough to produce adequate rainfall.

8 Facts about Global Dimming

1. The fossil fuels that cause the greenhouse effect, a contributing factor in global warming, also cause global dimming.
2. The impact of global dimming was first observed by a British scientist named Gerry Stanhill who was working in Israel when he noted hat records showed that the amount of solar radiation that reached the Earth’s surface had decreased up to 0.32% each year from 1958 to 1992. It was Stanhill who coined the term, global dimming.
3. Aerosols are thought to be the major cause of global dimming. Aerosols and other particulate matter absorb solar energy and reflect sunlight back into space. Examples of aerosol particulates include haze, dust, various pollutants and smoke.
4. The amount of sunlight that reached the earth decreased by 4% between 1960 and 1990 according to scientific testing.
5. Some scientists believe that vapor trails from airplanes (also known as contrails) are a contributing cause of global dimming. Because of the constant flow of air traffic, this theory could not be tested.  However, in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, civil air traffic was nearly shut down for three days, making possible the observation of the effect of the contrails. Scientists observed an increase in daytime temperature variation of more than 1 ° centigrade in some parts of the U.S.
6. Intense volcanic activity can also contribute to global dimming. In fact, Benjamin Franklin contended that a massive volcanic eruption in Iceland in 1783 was the cause of unusually cold weather in Europe.
7. Clean air legislation in the United States and Europe has effectively counteracted the effects of global dimming and has increased the amount of sunlight that reaches the earth.
8. Some scientists believe that global dimming has actually masked some of the impact of global warming, temporarily lessening the rate of temperature rise. These scientists believe that the global dimming might lead to future predictions of increases in the rate of global warming.

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