Saturday, June 21, 2008

Global Dimming Documentary

Noticed less sunshine lately? In this documentary we see that Scientists have discovered that the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth’s surface has been falling over recent decades.

If the climatologists are right, their discovery holds the potential for powerful disruption to life on our planet. Already it may have contributed to many thousands of deaths through drought and famine.







Essentially, the phenomenon called "global dimming" may mean that even the direst predictions about the rate of global warming have been seriously underestimated.

Until recently many scientists had never heard of global dimming. Among those who had, a lot remained sceptical. Now, thanks in part to the work of Australian researchers, the debate is set to edge into public consciousness.

This special report from the BBC’s Horizon program reveals how global dimming was gradually unmasked by isolated groups of scientists across the world ... in Israel, Germany, the US and Australia.

Global dimming is a product of the fossil fuels that cause global warming. It is the result of tiny airborne pieces of soot, ash and sulphur compounds reflecting back the heat of the sun.

By allowing less sunlight to reach the Earth, global dimming is cushioning us from the full impact of global warming, climatologists say. They fear that as we burn coal and oil more cleanly, and dimming is reduced, the full effects of global warming will be unleashed.



The worst-case scenario has temperatures rising by up to 10 degrees by the end of the century – twice more than previously thought.

Scientists have also linked global dimming to the failure of rains in sub-Saharan Africa – and the catastrophic droughts that hit Ethiopia in the 1980s. They worry that the same thing will happen again in areas like Asia, home to billions of people.

The overriding concern expressed by climate scientists in this program is that our climate will be radically altered, rendering many parts of the planet uninhabitable - unless concerted action is taken to combat both global dimming and global warming.



Wanna watch this film in high-quality and support the producers, buy the DVD...



4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Speculation, Speculation,Speculation. Facts they have not. FEAR seems to be the only emotion left. Rational analysis of our values doesn't seem to be questioned. We are the GODS an we create horror gods in our image! We DOMINATE and WE FEAR! Mankind is the biggest hypocrite of the known universe and it is its hypocrisy that ultimately leads to its downfall. The Earth and the Sun within its galaxy are following the Laws of Nature and will continue to orbit; Mankind has made its own laws. It must now sleep in the bed it made.

Anonymous said...

Interesting comment by anon above, "Facts the have not". So all these scientist spending their lives collecting data and reading the results = no facts?

I think some elements of our society do not have rational analysis. No one claims any different to the fact the sun and the earth will continue. The issue was how it affects us and that in our world is all that matters.

Mankind does not have to sleep in any bed it makes for itself, if we do not like something we can change it. Or just consign themselves to the inevitable.

The comments you made are deeply offensive to the many millions of people that are anything but horrors..... Your kind of attitude to me personally is the biggest horror of all of them.

Anonymous said...

carpe diem

Anonymous said...

the greeks thought above the clouds the gods sat and changed lives, that the stars were the universe, not colections of particles, and the governing body told it as truth,....... the church, the governing body at the time said the sun revolves around the earth...earth is the center of the universe...Copernicus studied, looked, observed, and stated, the earth revolves around the sun...... The tobacco company states in its 1970's research, no harmful effects are shown from smoking tobacco, the FDA preliminaries accepts their labels, the governing body, who also at one time allowed cocaine in coca-cola....the governing body of scientists stats that no conclusive evidence is shared or understood that global warming, dimming, or human change has been evidenced as of yet!!! Does the governing body really truly know what its doing and is in the best interest of anybody but its own interests?????? Chicken Little said the sky was falling, a nobody, loneliness, small chicken...and the sky fell...........just because its the governing, doesn't mean its the intelligent thinker.....