On Nova tonight...

[Meerkat]

The Dimming Sun. :eek:

[J. Dillon]

A sobering look for our grandchildren. Is there any hope ?:(

JD

[Bruce Hooke]

For those, like me, whose local PBS station is not broadcasting this show tonight, here is a link that I'm guessing addresses the same issues as the TV program.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4171591.stm

[Art Read]

Is it just me me, or does it seem that every new, contradictory "climate" study invariably somehow means "See! Global warming is even worse than we thought!"

Let me see if I understand this... Less sunlight getting through the atmosphere means MORE global warming. Gotcha. Whatever happened to nuclear winter and the coming ice age anyway? Remember those?

[Karl A. Hilbert]

From what I gathered from the show, we are creating an electric blanket (particulate and carbon emmissions) that is blocking the heat lamp (the sun).

[Gary E]

I saw the show... makes me wonder who's telling the truth as no one has actually come up with a fix, or even a bandaid.

[Bruce Hooke]

Is it just me me, or does it seem that every new, contradictory "climate" study invariably somehow means "See! Global warming is even worse than we thought!"

No, it is not just you. It appears more and more likely that the early predications about the rate and impact of global warming underestimated the magnitude and rate of its impact.


Let me see if I understand this... Less sunlight getting through the atmosphere means MORE global warming. Gotcha. Whatever happened to nuclear winter and the coming ice age anyway? Remember those?

Art, did you read the article I posted? It addresses this exact issue. The point is that the rate of global warming has been kept in check by particulates blocking sunlight more than was previously thought. However, particulates are a health issue and we are getting control of them, so as particulates in the atmostphere go down the thinking is that global warming will accelerate because less sunlight will be getting blocked.

[jake1.11]

"Quote, The sky is falling" Chicken Little. Isnt someone going to blame President Bush for this one too?

[Lew Barrett]

I was about to post a topic asking who'd seen Nova last night when lo and behold, ya beat me to the punch. I've been depressed all day by the concerns this program raised.
And yes, based on the evidence presented, the sky is falling. Nuclear winter hasn't happened....as yet....so doesn't count, no fair throwing out that red herring. The prospects are indeed sobering unless we get smart quick. I'm thinking I should have gone with a sailboat.....
Edited to add: This also has the potential to make hand tools, rather than power tools, man's primary resource. If the conclusions drawn are remotely accurate, things will be changing and not just for our grandchildren. Very disturbing possibility.
Lew

[Keith Wilson]

Whatever happened to nuclear winter . . .Nuclear winter is a side effect of large-scale nuclear war, caused by the enormous amounts of sunlight-absorbing crud that would be blasted into the atmosphere. Hey, cheer up; as unpleasant as that story is, at least we haven't done that yet.

[Nicholas Carey]

One thing the show pointed out is that the opposing forces -- global warming and global cooling -- have been keeping each other in more-or-less in check, with a slight edge towards warming.

And since they now have a good handle on the actual magnitude of the cooling effect....suggesting that the magnitude warming effect may be much larger than assumed by the current models.

Which suggests (pretty controversial, this) that we could be looking at a much more rapid and larger spike in mean temperature than has been hitherto assumed. Perhaps as large as 15 deg C in 50 years :eek:

[Meerkat]

What I got is that if you reduce particulate pollution, you have to reduce greenhouse gas pollution too or it's going to get hotter, faster.

(Amazing, the bit of good that came out of 9/11!)