Pollution is Both Causing and Preventing Global Warming

[Mike Rochip]

I watched an episode of Nova on PBS called "Dimming the Sun" that is about how particles of pollution in the air are making the Sun appear dimmer to people on the Earth. I had it on in the background while using the PC because I didn't think it would be all that interesting. After all it seems pretty obvious that would be the case.

 

It was a lot more interesting than I thought it would be. Particulates in the air could be reducing the amount of the Sun's energy reaching the Earth by 20% or more.

 

What this means is that while the emission of greenhouse gasses are increasing global warming, the emission of particulates like soot, ash, and sulfur are greatly reducing its speed and severity. What is really worrisome is that the predictions of global warming that scientists have formulated up until now have not taken this into account.

 

According to Nova, if we reduce the amount of particulates in man-made pollution, which of course a lot of countries are trying to do, it will almost certainly mean that global warming due to greenhouse gasses will greatly increase. Not only will global warming occur faster than predicted, it will lead to much higher temperatures in coming years.

NARRATOR: Despite the cooling from global dimming, scientists agree that over the past century or so, average temperatures have risen between .6 and .8 degrees Celsius, about one to one and a half degrees Fahrenheit. The increase, small as it may seem, is very fast by the standards of Earth history, but now we face something much faster. Ironically, if we keep bringing particle pollutants down?with great benefits to health?but continue pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, Peter Cox believes we could be creating the worst possible combination for global temperatures.

So it appears that the efforts to combat global warming are going to be a lot more complicated than thought before and some of the current proposals will make it worse.

 

If anyone is interested, the web page for the episode is here, and there's a transcript of the episode here.

[Andavari]

The scientists can talk and debate about it, but what really needs to take place is for all countries to comply, and the United States isn't exactly helping matters with the annual billions of pollutant tonage we put into the atmosphere. Also poor third-world countries will probably never comply or be able to comply for the need/want of modern conveniences that highly developed countries take for granted daily, e.g.; running water, electricity, etc.

 

Some interesting reading on Wikipedia is the Clean Air Act and the Clean Skies Act. I can't remember the name of an anti-pollution/anti-greenhouse program that I think the Japanese had initially started and other countries are following suit, but the United States refused to accept. One quick solution however is to rid ourselves of gas guzzling vehicles, conventual "easy ways" of producing power by stripping it from the Earth, etc., and eventually the cease of usage of fossil fuels.

 

And if people can't figure out how start being planetary conservationist to help maintain the planet governments might as well contract a company to start building those atmospheric machines they fantasize about putting on Mars to make oxygen - but here on Earth do it with a twist for removing the pollutants, and subsequently wait a good 1,000 or more years for them to show any appreciable results.

[Eldmannen]

Andavari, could it be the the Kyoto Protocol?

It is approved by almost the whole world, with a few notable exceptions such as USA.

 

Mike Rochip, yeah but stop polluting is probably a better idea than to pollute more.

[Andavari]

Andavari, could it be the the Kyoto Protocol?

It is approved by almost the whole world, with a few notable exceptions such as USA.

 

Yeah that's it! And I think the USA should go along with it, but I guess those road beasts gas guzzlers called SUV's are just more important than clean air.

[res45]

Yeah that's it! And I think the USA should go along with it, but I guess those road beasts gas guzzlers called SUV's are just more important than clean air.

 

 

This might have a little something to do with why the USA doesnt sign that piece of crap UN junk.

 

This is a challenge that requires a 100% effort; ours, and the rest of the world's. The world's second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases is China. Yet, China was entirely exempted from the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol. India and Germany are among the top emitters. Yet, India was also exempt from Kyoto ? America's unwillingness to embrace a flawed treaty should not be read by our friends and allies as any abdication of responsibility. And just as a side note Russia's precentage of greenhouse gases it has to reduce is 0% sound like a real deal for the US.