Global dimming

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Humanity cannot live without nature, but nature can live without humanity Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

It's easy: global dimming. Since the industrial revolution, we've thrown more particulate matter into the atmosphere than the largest volcanoes in history. The effect? global dimming. Less light is reaching the surface of the planet today than at any time since the last great volcanic blowout. That, in turn, affects ocean water temperature, which alters water currents, which alters water evaporation, which alters weather patterns, which leads to unnatural variation in those weather patterns (i.e. natural disasters). And that's just the global dimming effect.

Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet Mark Lynas See book keywords and concepts

Nor is it known exactly how far sulphate 'aerosols' - tiny particles of pollution blamed for 'global dimming' - cool things down. But models are a useful tool, and give a valuable insight into likely future conditions on this planet - something humanity has never had access to before. Unlike the oracles consulted by the ancients, models offer a way of divining the future based not on the miraculous visions of some unseen prophetess but on observable physical data. Apart from modelling, there is another option for looking forwards into the future - and that is looking backwards into the past.

One of the biggest hurdles to calculating climate sensitivity is the phenomenon of 'global dimming'. It has long been known that sulphate aerosols - released during the combustion of fossil fuels, and an important contributor to acid rain - have a short-term cooling effect on the climate, temporarily shielding us from the full effects of greenhouse warming by cutting off some of the Sun's rays.

Most projections suggest that global dimming will decline over future decades as pollution-control measures take effect - indeed, this process is probably already under way, perhaps explaining the more rapid global warming measured since the 1980s. Aerosols don't stay very long in the atmosphere: they are scrubbed out by rainfall in a matter of days, whereas COz can last for centuries. Once this aerosol shield is removed, temperatures may well then follow the upper extremes of the IPCC's projections - closer to six degrees than to two, according to the latest studies.

The future of food fabrication, intellectual property and seeds Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

In fact, it may eventually turn out that food fabricators are the only way people can get food due to destruction of the environment through radiation, depletion of soils, global dimming, the overuse of pesticides, lack of water and so on. Farming may actually become such a high-cost endeavor that it becomes cheaper to build these foods on a nanotechnology scale. At that point, the companies that own the technology and the intellectual property will control the masses. Rent the old movie, "Soylent Green" to get an interesting look at the potential social dynamics.

Humanity cannot live without nature, but nature can live without humanity Mike Adams, the Health Ranger See article keywords and concepts

And that's just the global dimming effect. It doesn't even count how we're poisoning rivers and streams, obliterating the rainforest, destroying ocean ecosystems, and now we're even poisoning our own water supplies with traces of prescription drugs. How stupid is that? We even poison ourselves. So much for "advanced civilization." We've done it to ourselves. And the more I learn about this subject and the long-term viability of societies, I'm increasingly convinced that we are headed down a path of certain self-destruction. Our behavior is simply not sustainable.

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ABOUT THE CREATOR OF NATURALPEDIA: Mike Adams, the creator of this NaturalNews Naturalpedia, is the editor of NaturalNews.com, the internet's top natural health news site, creator of the Honest Food Guide (www.HonestFoodGuide.org), a free downloadable consumer food guide based on natural health principles, author of Grocery Warning, The 7 Laws of Nutrition, Natural Health Solutions, and many other books available at www.TruthPublishing.com, creator of the earth-friendly EcoLEDs company (www.EcoLEDs.com) that manufactures energy-efficient LED lighting products, founder of Arial Software (www.ArialSoftware.com), a permission e-mail technology company, creator of the CounterThink Cartoon series (www.NaturalNews.com/index-cartoons.html) and author of over 1,500 articles, interviews, special reports and reference guides available at www.NaturalNews.com. Adams' personal philosophy and health statistics are available at www.HealthRanger.org.