Horizon: Global Dimming
Saw this yesterday - interesting and scary (if you believed the conclusions).
Summary: Particulate pollution has led to a phenomenon called global dimming (clouds bounce back more photons than they would normally) that has acted as a braking effect on global warming (due to increased CO2 emittions) over the last 20-30 years. This has led to the effects of global warming being underestimated over the years since the two pollutants have increased hand-in-hand. Now that the level of particulates is dropping due to better pollution constraints, this braking effect is diminished. CO2 levels are not reducing however. Which means...
Or something like that.
Saw this yesterday - interesting and scary (if you believed the conclusions).
Summary: Particulate pollution has led to a phenomenon called global dimming (clouds bounce back more photons than they would normally) that has acted as a braking effect on global warming (due to increased CO2 emittions) over the last 20-30 years. This has led to the effects of global warming being underestimated over the years since the two pollutants have increased hand-in-hand. Now that the level of particulates is dropping due to better pollution constraints, this braking effect is diminished. CO2 levels are not reducing however. Which means...
Or something like that.