"Global Dimming" -- the latest environment problem

World may be darkening as clouds, air pollution dim the sun's rays

WASHINGTON - (KRT) - Scientists call it "global dimming," a little-known trend that may be making the world darker than it used to be.

Thanks to thicker clouds and growing air pollution, much of the Earth's surface is receiving about 15 percent less sunlight than it did 50 years ago, according to Michael Roderick, a climate researcher at Australian National University in Canberra.

"Global dimming means that the transmission of sunlight through the atmosphere is decreasing," Roderick said.

"Just look out the window when you fly into New York or to California - it's dimmer," said Beate Liepert, a climatologist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in New York.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/8614588.htm

My eyes may be getting more sensitive in my middle age, but I coulda sworn that the sun was about 3 times BRIGHTER than it was when I was a kid (and I grew up tin the desert town of El Paso). When I lived in Miami until recently, it was always blindingly bright, and even here in San Francisco, on a good clear day in the warmer months, it's pretty brilliant.

And more people seem to get skin cancer. There is less of a protective layer, and more brightness. The UV rays get through more efficiently, because we are destroying the ozone layer.

Oh gee....I sound like one of those nutcases who tries to deny global warming.

"Just look out the window when you fly into New York or to California - it's dimmer,"

Much of the increase in cloud cover is a direct result of vapor trails from airplanes. The few days after 9/11 were some of the clearest I've ever seen in DFW.

... the increasing number of reports that global warming is accelerating? If sunlight is being blocked, how come warming from the greenhouse effect is increasing? Sunlight, and the trapping of its heat by greenhouse gases, is the reason for increased warming. Does this mean that the situation would be worse if artificial clouding were not present?

This strikes me, in large part because our government seems to have quickly embraces this view (from the article), as an attempt to ignore global warming, that reduced solar influx is a mediating influence. I remain unconvinced until many others replicate the data.

sometime in the near future?? Just preparing us now in case we notice?