From the follow-up department

May 6, 2005 8:54 AM

From the followup department: Global dimming? It stopped. "We see the dimming is no longer there," said Dr. Martin Wild, a climatologist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and the lead author of one of three papers analyzing sunlight that appear in today's issue of the journal Science. "If anything, there is a brightening." As always, use bugmenot to bypass registration.
posted by darukaru (9 comments total)

so, that means global warming can now continue unabated?
posted by delmoi at 9:11 AM on May 6, 2005

Did seem rather bright out the other day.
posted by delmoi at 9:11 AM on May 6, 2005

Meanwhile, the dimming of global reason gathers momentum.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 9:32 AM on May 6, 2005

*squints out window*

Yep.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 9:35 AM on May 6, 2005

I'M SORRY BUT THE AMERICAN PRESIDENT IS PROOF POSITIVE OF ONGOING GLOBAL DIMMING
posted by quonsar at 11:55 AM on May 6, 2005

That's one fickle Sun we've got.
posted by troutfishing at 10:03 PM on May 6, 2005

"We see the dimming is no longer there...if anything, there is a brightening."

...well, that's settled.

Hey, does this mean it's going to start globally cooling instead of warming?
posted by deusdiabolus at 12:04 AM on May 7, 2005

As I understand it, the proponents of global dimming hypothesized that dimming would diminish or cease soon (the suspected culprit was particulates caused by pollution; we've got a lot better in a lot of countries in controlled such visible pollution).

The real fear of dimming wasn't its effect, but what it was hiding.

If dimming goes away, it may be that it was masking a much higher global warming rate than the current models are based upon. If dimming declines, it may be that we're in for a much harder, faster, global warming route than scientists were expecting.

In other words, this isn't good news. At all.
posted by ntk at 9:42 AM on May 7, 2005

Well, shit, then maybe we oughta start producing those particulates again!
posted by breath at 2:42 AM on May 8, 2005