Global dimming.

Congratulations to the BBC for putting together a 'Climate Change' series on BBC4. As part of this the BBC are helping to recruit your PCs for a climate change data analysis exercise; http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/hottopics/climatechange/ . A recent programme from the Horizon team called 'Global Dimming' (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/dimming_prog_summary.shtml ) makes the lay persons discussion about global warming even more confusing. We are now being told that the warming effects of CO2 emissions are being cancelled out to a certain extent by the cooling affects of particulates. Basically, particulate pollution encourages more cloud cover and less sunshine. In London this winter we have seen very little sunshine.

Interestingly, they are blaming the 1985 famine of Ethiopia on the effects of global dimming. It has had the affect of moving the seasonal rains away from central Africa and down to the south. This has been blamed on particlate pollution from Europe and Northern America. There is more on the above link.

The main point from this programme for the general public is that climate change prediction is highly complex and the 'experts' themselves are working hard to get a clearer picture. The solutions to the negative affects of climate change will certainly dominate our actions and thoughts for generations to come.