How does global dimming effect the environment

This service is more advanced with JavaScript available. Advertisement Hide. Authors Authors and affiliations V. Conference paper.

This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves. This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access. Andreae, M. Charlson, R. Chung, C. Kiehl, Effects of the South Asian absorbing haze on the northeast monsoon and surface-air heat exchange, J. Climate , — Google Scholar.

Crutzen, P. CrossRef Google Scholar. Harrison, E. Atmospheres , 95 18 , —18, Instead, air pollution from human activity is thought to be the major contributor.

Aerosols which form from pollution can directly reflect and absorb radiation before it reaches the planet's surface and make clouds brighter and longer lasting, meaning they reflect more sunlight. While we cannot rule out the possibility that natural variations in the Earth's climate via naturally occurring cloud variations have contributed to global dimming, the effects are so closely correlated to trends in atmospheric pollution that there is strong evidence to say human activity is a major player.

For example, European and North American clean air legislation in the s corresponded to brightening in these regions. By contrast, China and India have seen further dimming, matching pollution increases from rapid industrialisation. Global dimming is thought to have had a number of substantial impacts.

For example, there is evidence to suggest it has masked part of the historical warming caused by greenhouse gases. The best current estimate is that an atmospheric concentration of ppm would equate to global warming of 2 o C, above which dangerous climate changes are predicted. The melting of polar ice sheets resulting in a sea level rise of up to 12 metres. A reduction in the strength of North Atlantic ocean currents leading to significant cooling in Europe.

Destabilization of methane hydrates in the oceans leading to substantial methane release. When fossil fuels are burned except from specific products they emit sub-products like ash, soot and sulphur dioxide. These sub-products have the ability to condensate clouds and increase their reflective ability. Therefore less sun radiation can reach the Earth. This phenomenon is called Global Dimming and influence the earth by reducing its temperature.

This phenomenon is called global warming. This increase in temperature can cause ice polar regions to melt down and therefore raise the sea level. Both events are destructive to earth and can cause serious environmental and ecological harm.

Global dimming can be defined as the reduction in the amount of global irradiance i. Global warming is said to be the rise in the average temperature of the surface of the earth. The average temperature of the earth is about 0. Over the years there has been several debates if global warming is real or just some cooked up principle by meteorologist and scientist to explain the recent happens change in rainfall pattern, extremely cold conditions experienced during winter, mean temperature during summer etc across the earth.

Believe it or not global warming is real. In the 19th century Joseph Fourier explained the principle of how green house gases absorb and emit waves from the sun used to warm the surface of the earth. Over the last three centuries the amount of these gases present in the atmosphere has increased as a result of technological advancement and population growth over the ages.

The presence of these gases has had adverse effects on man and his environment which include:. Man is more aware of the effects and consequences of global dimming and warming, several steps and technologies have been adopted to reduce the emission rate of these gases. Global dimming is simply described as the reduction in the amount of solar radiation reaching the earth. This is caused by the following, increased amount of particulate matter and pollutants such as carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide and soot.

Due to the increase in energy demand, fossil fuel combustion has led to the emission of green house gases which causes global dimming. These subatances coalease with water droplet on the cloud, as the pollution increases more bonds are formed and a reflective layer is formed the impedes solar radiation from reaching the surface of the earth.

The opposite of this phenomena is Global warming, whereby these greenhouse gases, particulate matter envolopes a chamber of the earth, disallowing heat from escaping into the atmosphere. This cause an increase in temperature. GHG traps infrared radiation disallowing its escape to space. CO produced as a result of incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, have effect on the circulatory system of human beings, disrupting the heam group in the human blood, they can also slow down reflexes and actions, cause diziness and brief loss in memory[2].

CFC released from aerosols and cooling systems affects the stratosphere and depletes the ozone layer which serves as a protective layer, preventing us from the harmful effect of Ultraviolet radiation from the sun.

The long term exposure to UV can lead to cancer. Global climate change is as a result of GHG which have heat trapping capabilities[3]released to the atmosphere thus raising the world temperature by some degrees. There are some gases that are majorly responsible for this increase in temperature and are referred to as Green House Gases GHG. The effect of the Global warming has resulted in rise in sea levels, shrinking of Glaciers, High temperatures, severe rain storms, and droughts.

This has resulted in the depletion of the Ozone layer and the only home for man is under threat from high Ultra Violate rays that can no longer be prevented by the Ozone layer as a result of its depletion. Proper care should be taken to stop these activities that will result in Global dimming and global warming. The natural gas regularly burned and released into the atmosphere during the production of oil and gas amounts to a double damaging consequence against the environment —wasted resources and additional greenhouse gas emissions.

Green house emissions are mainly caused by human activities such as deforestation, bush gas flaring and burning of fossils. Fossil fuels are more like green house gases that create other by-products which are pollutants such as sulphur dioxide, ash and soot. These pollutants also change the properties of the cloud.

Relating the green house gases with the global diming, polluted air results in clouds with larger number of droplets than unpolluted clouds. This makes those clouds reflective i. In order words, global warming also is as a result of greenhouse effect. The effects of the related emission on our planet earth are various human and environmental problems, global warming is one of the major adverse effects among others.

Reference 1. Because Earth is cooler than sun, it radiates back the sun energy in much more longer wavelengths.

This thermal radiation emitted by the land and ocean, is absorbed by the atmosphere, including clouds and it is radiated back to Earth Greenhouse effect. The natural greenhouse effect makes life as we know it possible because without it the average temperature at surface would be below freezing point. What make greenhouse effect dangerous are human activities. The most common act is the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. This kind of activities can produce global warming.

Greenhouse gases: most common greenhouse gases are water vapor and CO2. There are some more gases which are methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and several more found in the atmosphere. Qin, M. Manning, Z. Chen, M. Marquis, K. Averyt, M. Tignor and H. Miller eds. Global dimming is a recently discovered phenomenon that reduces the amount of solar radiation reaching the surface of our planet.

There is evidence that increased numbers of particulates in the air are responsible for global dimming. These pollutants include sulfur dioxide, ash and soot. These pollutants have increased as the rate of burning of fossil fuels has increased. These aerosol particles in the atmosphere have been associated with global dimming. The pollutants form nuclei for cloud droplets. It is thought that the water droplets in clouds coalesce around the particles.

As air pollution increases more particulates are available for the formation of droplets. This makes them more reflective , resulting in less solar radiation sunlight reaching Earth's surface. These reduce the amount of radiated heat from the Earth from leaving the atmosphere.

However, the discovery of global dimming provides evidence that the models for global warming have seriously underestimated the power of global warming. In effect, the phenomenon of global dimming has masked the overall effect of global warming. The effect of global dimming have led to fears that global dimming has been masking the true potential of global warming. At the moment a number of predictions provide a prediction of 5 degrees increase in temperature for the next hundred years. Taking into account of global dimming would suggest that the true power of global warming is much higher than these estimates.

Can Global Dimming be reduced? Global dimming can be reduced by cleaning up the emissions from burning fossil fuels and the emissions from vehicles. In essence, the sources of both greenhouse gases and air particulates must be addressed.

It has been speculated that the heat waves in Europe in , resulting in thousands of deaths, could have been the result of the action of the European Community to reduce particulate emissions, without considering a reduction in greenhouse gases.

How should we approach a solution to global dimming and global warming? Climatologists emphasise that the source of global warming and global dimming must be tackled together.

Drastic reductions of the burning of fossil fuels is required to reduce the effects of greenhouse gases and the particulates which are giving rise to global dimming. When the issues of climate change and its effect to the environment was raise by the environment watch groups a decade some years back a lot of people does not believe anything like that especially those countries that operate in an environmentally unfriendly manner.

Little wonder any time there is International summit on climate change and the way forward either in Vancouver, Durban south Africa name it three is always a stalemate and blame sharing and counter accusation on who is the main culprit. So, Global warming is real and its effect to the environment is on the increase and the earlier we start to leave responsibly the better for the future.

Big countries like USA, China, India and other developing economies must learn how to cut down their carbon emissions to safe the situations.

Yakubu Abubakar. Global warming cannot be said to be real or a fact as the actual temperature of the world has actual decreased in recent time. Climate change, on the hand is real and you have gone on to show numerous examples. The way the earth works is very complex and scientist are still need to gain a greater understanding of its working. A good example of lack of understanding is there the inaccurate predictions of the global warming using modelling techniques which can be used against the belief of global warming rightly or wrongly???

Numerous factors can influence climate change which are beyond human control and might even hide or reduce the impact of human activity. A good example of this volcano activity. Mt Pintabuo erupted in and it has been suggested that it reduced the annual global temperature the following year by 0. In Summary, the earth is complex and has been around for 4.

Species died out before the human activities and how much of this nature and how much of it human's impact which without doubt has had on the earth's habitiats. There does seem to be a vast number of indicators which seem to show that the climate is becoming warmer. Global warming or climate change is a subject that shows no sign of cooling down.

The earth is warming and humans are the major cause. Food and water supply is at risk and this endanger our health and threaten other basic human needs.

Until recently, governments and scientists focused on the greenhouse gases from fossil fuels. These gases reduce the amount of radiated heat from the earth from leaving the atmosphere.

The available models for global warming has underestimated the power of global warming due to the discovery of global dimming. Global dimming is a phenomenon that reduces the amount of radiation reaching the surface of the earth. There is evidence that pollutants like sulfur dioxide, ash and soot present in the air are responsible for global dimming and these pollutants increase as more fossil fuels are burnt.

The source of global warming and global dimming must be tackled together. Rapid reduction of the burning of fossil fuels is neccessary to reduce the greenhouse gases and the particulates which cause global dimming. Anthropogenic activities of human being by converting naturally occurring fossil to energy generation for better living can create danger for atmosphere and climate.

Combustion and processing naturally occurring fossils which generate greenhouse gases GHG and CO2 ultimately cause climate change globally. Each year emission in billion tonnes of carbon equivalently in to atmosphere, resulting: global warming, rising sea levels, floods, heat-waves, stronger and more frequent storms, and drought.

And we can see much disaster for last few years and numbers of people affected related with this Environmental issues Main source of Carbon emission is because of industrialized burning and transport sector. Or another option is Electricity or Hydrogen can be transported to make these emission-free secondary energy carriers to consumers. In this way it seems that moderate additional costs for electricity could allow the implementation of a first level hydrogen transport infrastructure instead of building a CO2 transportation network.

In this way, fossil fuels can continue to play a role within a diverse energy mix. This is believed to be caused by increased particulate materials in the atmosphere. Some of these are aerosols like sulphate aerosols and soot from combustion of coal. These reflect sunlight rays back to the atmosphere leading to cooling of the earth surface.

Increased particulates lead to water molecules to coalesce around them effectively reducing amount of rainfall experienced. Global warming is the rise in average temperature of the earth atmosphere as well as that of the water bodies especially oceans.

Increased population and industrial development have been found to have direct link to global warming since both signify increase in energy consumption thus increased emissions into the atmosphere.

Consequently, results have been floods and droughts in some parts of the earth. This is due to expansion of water levels in oceans and seas as it warms.

Closely related is the melting of ice in glaciers. Melting of glaciers has not only caused rising sea levels but also shortages of water supplies in Asia and South America [1].

Global warming has contributed to abrupt climate changes to the detriment of agricultural production. Food insecurity in some areas is the likely effect. In lieu of the above, both dimming and warming of the globe are closely related.

Reducing aerosol particulates means dimming reduces but warming increases! However, the most disastrous is global warming.

Technologies such as carbon sequestration, emissions trading will be important in this quest. Reference [1] Global climate change, available at United States global change research programme website.

Pollution produced by humans may be seriously weakening the Earth's water cycle - reducing rainfall and threatening fresh water supplies. This is because the energy for the hydrological cycle comes from sunlight. As sunlight heats the ocean, water escapes into the atmosphere and falls out as rain. So as aerosols cut down sunlight by large amounts, they may be spinning down the hydrological cycle of the planet.

Large scale changes in weather patterns may also have been caused by global dimming. Climate modelers speculatively suggest that this reduction in solar radiation at the surface may have led to the failure of the monsoon in sub-Saharan Africa during the s and s, together with the associated famines such as the Sahel drought, caused by Northern hemisphere pollution cooling the Atlantic.

Because of this, the Tropical rain belt may not have risen to its northern latitudes, thus causing an absence of seasonal rains. The study by researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography concluded that the imbalance between global dimming and global warming at the surface leads to weaker turbulent heat fluxes to the atmosphere. This means globally reduced evaporation and hence precipitation occur in a dimmer and warmer world, which could ultimately lead to a more humid atmosphere in which it rains less.

The NASA study found that several major dust storms in June and July in the Sahara desert sent dust drifting over the Atlantic Ocean and through several effects caused cooling of the waters - and thus dampening the development of hurricanes.

Some scientists now consider that the effects of global dimming have masked the effect of global warming to some extent and that resolving global dimming may therefore lead to increases in predictions of future temperature rise.

The magnitude of this masking effect is one of the central problems in climate change with significant implications for future climate changes and policy responses to global warming.

We lived in a global warming plus a global dimming world and now we are taking out global dimming. So we end up with the global warming world, which will be much worse than we thought it will be, much hotter. The question is really and simply; is global warming anthropogenic? Scientists seems to be finding an agreement on this issue more difficult than proving and agreeing that something needs to be done.

So what to do; well considering that the return of ice is supposedly guaranteed, we have to consider how certain is it that man will be here to witness the event!

Emotionally driven arguments state that this will only happen with careful planning and a global commitment from all the aspiring nations to limit their outputs of CO2, maybe even to also limit the reasons for this huge output and of course the argument will go that the main reasons are population growth and the associated energy needs of this expanding global population.

As Adavis points out above, I too believe that we really, really need to be a little more skeptical and use our intellect to overcome emotion and concentrate on what, if anything really needs to be done.

As has been mentioned several times already; the dimming creates a cooling effect which is counteracting the greenhouse warming of our climate and it is therefore likely that this effect has partly masked the magnitude of global warming!

The explanation given is that these micro particles from our factories and the burning of oil in our vehicles, load water droplets into the clouds turning them into real mirrors.

Consequently, sunlight is reflected from the cloud layer and less light reaches us. Less light means lower temperatures in some areas of the planet and less evaporation in the oceans. This decrease in brightness thereby mitigating global warming shows that we may have underestimated the magnitude of global warming.

The situation is so complicated for the human race, since we must apparently not only respond promptly against global warming but also against the global dimming and the associated cooling. I am agreeing to your comment. Global dimming is hiding the true powers of global warming. Only dealing with dimming would increase the affect of global warming as happened in Europe. So the root cause of global warming has to be adressed.

If not in 30 years time we would be living in a much more warmer planet. Global level impacts has to be considered. Apart from the melting of ice in Green land, drying of the tropical rain forest will lead to increased forest fire which again emits more and more CO2 to the atmosphere increasing the global warming. Also if the temperature rose extensively it would release methane hydrate, contained at the bottom of our oceans, a gas which is 10 times more powerful than CO2 in its green houseeffect whose effects would be devastating.

As more heat gets trapped in the Earth, the planet will become extremely warm, which will in turn, lead to weather changes throughout the world. Since the climatic conditions in which we are living are perfect for our survival, any high increase in temperature can cause drastic changes which can be life-threatening for all living beings on the Earth. Weather: In some parts of the world, due to rise in the winter and summer temperatures, the weather will become very hot.

It may rain more in winters, while summers will become extremely hot. In other parts of the world, the effects may be completely opposite, as some areas may get very warm while other may become very cold. Storms, floods, and droughts are some expected consequences which may affect different areas of the world.

Sea Levels: Increase in the temperature may cause melting glaciers, which will increase the water in the seas and oceans, raising the sea levels up to 20 to 40 cm all over the world. People living near the lower coastal areas of the world, like Netherlands and Bangladesh, will be at a higher risk from flooding. As a result, millions of people may have to leave their homes and large areas of farmland may also get destroyed.

Farming: The changes in the weather may also cause changes in the amount of rainfall in different parts of the world. Some places may get heavy rains while in other places it may not rain at all. Hence, this will affect the crop growth throughout the world, as crops like wheat and rice grow well in higher temperatures, whereas crops like corn and sugarcane may not grow.

Therefore, there will be scarcity of food in some parts of the world and people will suffer from hunger. Plants and Animals: Due to these weather and temperature changes, many plants and animals will not be able to cope up and will die eventually. For example, polar bears and seals will have to search for new homes for hunting and living, if the ice in the Arctic melts. Since natural habitats of plants and animals will get affected, most species may become extinct.

People: Last but not the least, these weather changes will also bring unwanted changes in our lifestyle. The consequences of these climatic variations on human beings depend on how well we adapt ourselves to the changes, and how much we can do to minimize them. However, by controlling the amount of air pollution production, efficiently using our energy resources, and recycling used materials, we can significantly reduce the different reasons that contribute to the generation of greenhouse gases, which lead to climatic changes and global warming.

Global temperatures have risen by over 0. In the UK in s were very warm about 0. Warm winters have reduced thenumber of frosts, and the warmer summers have included record hot spells and high sunshine totals. The potential for soils to support agriculture and distribution of land use will be influenced by changes in soil water balance:. The effect of increased temperature and CO2 levels on arable crops will be broadly neutral:. Weeds evolve rapidly to overcome control measures, short lived weeds and those that spread vegetatively creeping buttercup, couch etc evolve at the greatest rate:.

The answers that global dimming models seemed to provide, the documentary noted, has led to a chilling conclusion: what came out of our exhaust pipes and power stations [from Europe and North America] contributed to the deaths of a million people in Africa, and afflicted 50 million more with hunger and starvation.

Scientists said that the impact of global dimming might not be in the millions, but billions. If this air pollution and global dimming has a detrimental impact on the Asian monsoons some 3 billion people could be affected. Contrails the vapor from planes flying high in the sky were seen as another significant cause of heat reflection. During the aftermath of the September 11, terrorist attacks in the United States, all commercial flights were grounded for the next three days. This allowed climate scientists to look at the effect on the climate when there were no contrails and no heat reflection.

What scientists found was that the temperature rose by some 1 degree centigrade in that period of 3 days. The above impacts of global dimming have led to fears that global dimming has been hiding the true power of global warming.

Currently, most climate change models predict a 5 degrees increase in temperature over the next century, which is already considered extremely grave.