Global Dimming is a recent phenomenon that questions all our thoughts on how best to protect the planet by reducing air borne particulates in the atmosphere.
Scientists have found that the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth’s surface has drastically declined over the last 5 decades. This in turn has actually had a cooling effect on the Earth. Recent initiatives to reduce pollution and particulate emissions have started to have a positive impact and reduce Global Dimming – leading to a possible acceleration in Global Warming.
An English scientist working in Israel in the 1950’s coined the term ‘Global Dimming’. Dr. Gerald Stanhill was given the task of measuring how strongly the sun shone over Israel to help with the designs of an irrigation scheme. 20 years later he went back to repeat his measurements to check they were still valid. The results he found were astonishing. In 30 years the amount of sunlight reaching the earth surface had dropped by 22%.
The findings shocked the scientific world and so the idea was dismissed. Dr. Stanhill decided to investigate further. He found that another scientist in Germany has also recorded a reduction in the sunlight over the Bavarian Alps. Dr. Beate Liepert and Stanhill researched the phenomenon and found the same story to be true worldwide. In Antarctica, solar energy had dropped by 9%, 10% in the US, and by nearly 30% in Russia.
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