Globe Grows Darker as Sunshine Diminishes 10% to 37%

[scottxyz]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/13/science/13DARK.html

In the second half of the 20th century, the world became, quite literally, a darker place.

Defying expectation and easy explanation, hundreds of instruments around the world recorded a drop in sunshine reaching the surface of Earth, as much as 10 percent from the late 1950's to the early 90's, or 2 percent to 3 percent a decade. In some regions like Asia, the United States and Europe, the drop was even steeper. In Hong Kong, sunlight decreased 37 percent

[7th_Sephiroth]

1. pollution

blocking the suns rays?

[NMDemDist2]

2. hmmm what can we make of that?

my first thought was pollution (and the article thinks so too) but what will it mean? hope the conference gets some press

[7th_Sephiroth]

3. its gotta be pollution/space dust

if it were something like the sun loosing "steam" the effect of dimishment of light would be even, gotta be something in the atmosphere concentrateing and blocking the light

[Lucky Luciano]

4. Mr Burns

Bush = Mr Burns and Bush is blocking out the sun.

[German-Lefty]

5. Cities like Hong Kong and Tokyo have their own weather systems.

In Hong Kong, sunlight decreased 37 percent
Skyscrapers vertical sides absorb sunlight during the morning and evening. This makes cities hot. There's also watering of laws, swimming pools, and that make the humid. I've heard in Tokyo the have a big huge cloud form above the city every day, and then all of the sudden BAMM flash rains.

I wonder if the places they've been measuring are random or in cities.

I don't want to log in and answer a bunch of dumb questions for the NYTimes.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Yes, it look's like a wide study

Pollution dims sunlight in two ways, scientists theorize. Some light bounces off soot particles in the air and goes back into outer space. The pollution also causes more water droplets to condense out of air, leading to thicker, darker clouds, which also block more light. For that reason, the dimming appears to be more pronounced on cloudy days than sunny ones. Some less polluted regions have had little or no dimming.

The dynamics of global dimming are not completely understood. Antarctica, which would be expected to have clean air, has also dimmed.
...
Since the 50's, hundreds of radiometers have been installed from the Arctic to Antarctica, dutifully recording sunshine.


Off topic, dumb questions deserve dumb answers. To one newspaper, I'm a 87 year old millionaire living in Antarctica. Go on, sign on and be inventive.

[nodehopper]

11. go to bugmenot.com

they have login names and passwords for most sites like that, a bunch for NY Times.

[dbt]

7. And then there are the Chemtrails.

They block sunlight, too. I suspect they are intended to do just that. (Among other things.)

:evilgrin:
dbt

[nodehopper]

12. okay, what's the deal with chemtrails?

I have as much of a healthy interest in "conspiracy theories" as the next person, but everything I've heard about chemtrails has been very vague, not very lucid, and did not sound remotely plausible. What are the theories about them?

[gasperc]

8. this data just now comes to "light"

:)

[mainer]

9. Jet contrails

Studies have reported that they increase cloud cover.

[gulfcoastliberal]

10. This trend

Will accelerate as long as the neocon Bushgang* is in power.

[Minstrel Boy]

13. Look at this picture from Jan 29:

What's increased since the 1950s to account for the darkening? Contrails (and chemtrails?), which block the sun's visible light yet trap its heat.

http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/image_of_day_040504.html#text