Global dimming

[sansouci]

Did anyone else see this programme last week? I found it absolutely horrifying & very believable. Want to discuss it?

I didn't but now I wish I had, when and which channel was it on?

What did it say?

God yes I saw it....frightening.....in so many words it said the end of the world is nigh. By cutting our pollution levels ie, cleaner cars, cleaner air etc...we expose the earth faster global warming...and they say that if drastic measures are not taken now, in 35-40 years the damage will be irreversible.

I saw it and it made me cry. It makes so much sense.

It should be required viewing for all politicians. Especially US ones (though UK ones aren't much better - what ever happened to the "integrated transport policy"?)

yes saw it and posted on here but not many people seemed to have seen it/interested. it scared me to death. it should DEF be required viewing for politicians. what the 'eck are we going to do?! so if we reduce the pollution we put into the air we expose the earth to global warming at an amazingly fast rate....and if we dont, we die of pollution related probs anyway. scary.

for anyone who didnt see it, it was realised by a few scientists and mainly one, who, after the 9/11 tragedy, realised that the sky without aircraft for a couple of days was totally clear. this gave him the opportunity to measure the temp difference between day and night and it was a massive increase - the biggest in 30 years. in just those 2 days without aircraft. this was because without the air pollution, the sun's rays were able to penetrate the atmosphere and, being hotter than ever before, showed us that global warming was almost immediate without air pollution. if we cut pollution right down, as we are doing gradually, global warming WILL happen at a faster rate than ever realised. ice caps melting, weather changing dramatically. enough so that in just a few decades, britain has the climate of africa and africa...well, is uninhabitable.

for anyone that didnt see it.

god

Our poor children !!! I have never ever voted in my life, but I think I'll vote green next time.

The lib dems have better green policies than labour or the tories and have a better chance of getting extra MPs (if not actually getting in).

Must send off my voting form.

Um - I didn't see it but it doesn't make sense to me. Pollution causes global warming - less pollution causes more global warming? Someone pls explain in simple terms?

I didn't see it but my SIL did and she explained; the amount of pollution in the air has been hiding the damage to the ozone layer, and the scientists have therefore underestimated the damage to the ozone layer. The ozone layer protects us from dangerous radiation fromthe sun. Therefore if we reduce the amount of pollution in the air we will be exposed to higher levels of the dangerous radiation.

JanH - global warming is caused by several specific pollutants including CO2 and methane.

"global dimming" is caused by other pollutants - specifically particles in the air from exhausts and other nasty chemicals.

recent measures such as introduction of catalytic converters has reduced the second type of pollution considerably, but it turns out that that pollution was protecting us from the full effects of global warming. The worst case scenario given on the prog was far worse than any I've heard before (6-7 m sea level rise in 25 years, bye bye Norfolk, desertification of rainforests leading to more CO2...)

does it make sense now?

Sort of - but what has caused the global warming?

Oh, sorry, you said - CO2 and methane. So they have made holes in the ozone layer, but other pollutants have filled in the gaps? So if we went on using the same amount of those, we would be OK?

[confused emoticon]

global warming is caused mostly by co2 (I think) - from factories, power stations, cars (catalytic converters don't reduce the CO2) - anything that burns fossil fuel really.

The problem is that we don't notice carbon dioxide in the air so there's no short term political advantage in cleaning it up.

this is really scary to me, i have nightmares about the world ending, floods, global warming and it frightens the s**t out of me, i didnt see the programme and glad in a way i didnt!!!

the guy on the programme said that (so why don't we just keep pumping this other crap in the air). But apparently that wouldn't work as we would all succumb to respiratory diseases fairly sharpish.

I'm delighted to see my thread got so much response! It seriously scared the sh*t out of me. I made dh watch it with me & we both couldn't stop thinking about it for days. If I remember correctly, it's something about water particles collecting on airborne dust and waste emissions and the light from the sun being reflected away from the earth. It would be fantastic if this programme could be aired again. I feel that it's extremely important. If enough of us are made aware of the damage we're doing, maybe we could actually stop the damage. It's progressing so quickly! If I didn't live in the country & didn't have 2 little children, I'd definitely stop driving & use a bike or... public transport (sigh!). I will certainly avoid using the car whenever possible now.

I think for anything significant to be done, its up to the politicians, because too many people just dont care! Mega steps should be taken like limiting the amount of flights anyone can take, limiting the no. of cars etc...but all those industries generate money...the root of all evil.

Hah! They will care soon enough! Do agree that the "almighty dollar" seems to be the root of most evil. Today is Dubya's big parade... I hope he gets hit by a personal tsunami.

He'd float! like a turd!