Global Dimming
A fairly new term, which until recently was unknown to science. On September 11th 2001, all air traffic was however, suspended. This gave scientists the opportunity to measure the sunlight reaching earth without aircraft contrails interfering with the measurements.
What is Global Dimming?
carbon-info.org
6) Global Dimming
It was discovered that water droplets coalese around airplane exhaust particals (and other pollutants)in the atmosphere. This causes more water droplets to be formed, which reflects sunlight back into space, providing a cooling effect.
Depending on the location, a reduction of sunlight reaching earth of about 4% since 1950 is the average effect of global cooling.
And the result?
It is easy to think that global dimming is working against global warming and could be perceived to be a 'friend'
However, the effect of global dimming has been reducing since 1990. This is generally caused by a reduction in atmospheric polution and environmental friendly aircrafts.
Great news - right?
The bad news is that global dimming has lead scientists to underestimate the real effect of global warming. If we tomorrow decided to stop all air travel to cut carbon emission from aircrafts, global warming would actually speed up at an alarming rate.
And...
Climate models incorporating global dimming data, predict that the earth will be 10°C hotter by 2100 - a doubling of the previously predicted increase this century.
A 10°C increase would lead to the melting of the Greenland icecap, major reductions in the extent of tropical rainforests and significant rises in sea levels.
A world without global dimming.
