Much to their surprise, scientists have found that less sunlight has been reaching the earth’s surface in recent decades. The sun isn’t going dark; rather clouds, air pollution and aerosols are getting in the way. Researchers are learning that the phenomenon can interact with global warming in ways that had not been appreciated.
“This is something that people haven’t been aware of,” says Shabtai Cohen of the Institute of Soil, Water and Environmental Sciences in Bet Dagan, Israel. “And it’s taken a long time to gain supporters in the scientific world.” Cohen’s colleague Gerald Stanhill first published his solar dimming results 15 years ago.
Increased flows of Russian rivers into the Arctic Ocean are due to man-made greenhouse gases and might indicate changing global rainfall patterns, according to a report by leading British climate scientists.
The team at the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research - part of the British Meteorological Office - said computer models showed that the cause was human activity and predicted that things would get worse. …
It comes just four weeks before the Kyoto climate change treaty enters into force, aimed at curbing the emissions of the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.
Critics say the treaty is too late and inadequate to tackle the looming global climate crisis.
They note the world’s worst polluter, the United States, has refused to sign up arguing human activities do not contribute to climate change which is a natural phenomenon.
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Soot mostly from diesel engines is blocking snow and ice from reflecting sunlight, which is contributing to “near worldwide melting of ice” and as much as a quarter of all observed global warming, top NASA scientists say.
The findings about the snow and ice albedos - their power to reflect light falling on the surface - raise new questions about human-caused climate change from the Arctic to the Alps.
“We suggest that soot is a more all-around ‘bad actor’ than has been appreciated” NASA scientists James Hansen and Larissa Nazarenko wrote in a paper published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
MSNBC - Scientists: Diesel soot abets global warming
