If you have not already seen it, visitors to this blog will have an interest in this 50-min documentary, “BBC Global Dimming Documentary”, via Gail Zawacki at her Wit’s End blog.
It relates to evidence obtained from the three-day aircraft grounding that occurred after 9/11 and the profound effects that just the U.S. Commercial Aircraft Flying has on Earth’s atmosphere. (One degree Centigrade increase within three days.)
Quoting Professor Guy McPherson ;
“The impact of the aerosol masking effect has been greatly underestimated, as pointed out in an 8 February 2019 article in Science. As indicated by the lead author of this paper on 25 January 2019: “Global efforts to improve air quality by developing cleaner fuels and burning less coal could end up harming our planet by reducing the number of aerosols in the atmosphere, and by doing so, diminishing aerosols’ cooling ability to offset global warming.” The cooling effect is “nearly twice what scientists previously thought.” That this February 2019 paper cites the conclusion by Levy et al. (2013) indicating as little as 35% reduction in industrial activity drives a 1 C global-average rise in temperature suggests that as little as a 20% reduction in industrial activity is sufficient to warm the planet 1 C within a few days or weeks.”
Guy and I both believe a serious economic crash could be the end of us!
None of these risks operate in a vacuum, they are all connected.
Imagine what the carbon footprint of the largest most brutal military on the planet must be?
“According to its own study, in 2013 the Pentagon consumed fuel equivalent to 90,000,000 barrels of crude oil. This amounts to 80% of the total fuel usage by the federal government. If burned as jet fuel it produces about 38,700,000 metric tons of CO2. And the Pentagon’s figures do not include carbon produced by the thousands of bombs dropped in 2013, or the fires that burned after the jets and drones departed.”
The Pentagon’s enormous, unacknowledged contribution to climate change
A reduction in US warmongering would buy the bio-sphere some critical time, fat chance of seeing that happen.
The documentary explains how global dimming fits within global heating, as well as reduced pan evaporation rate. (Sunlight photons serve as the most important variable in water evaporation, and global dimming reduces these photons by about 10%!). Increased small particle pollution turns clouds into sunlight mirrors because of water condensation on the small particles: at least ten times the number of particles and condensation than without the pollution. This greatly reduces the amount of the Sun’s energy coming through the atmosphere. Global heating (GH) due to CO2 tends to increase average atmospheric temperature while global dimming (GD) tends to reduce it, therefore reduced GD will greatly increase GH, within days, just as Professor Guy McPherson has emphasised in many of his presentations.
Guy McPherson references this documentary often and we will be speaking about this phenomenon on his upcoming November 2016 New Zealand speaking tour.
Guy discusses the phenomenon here .
When the Industrial Revolution grinds to a halt and we cease emitting particulate pollutants into the atmosphere, more solar radiation will hit the earth and the oceans, vastly increasing the warming which will compound all the other effects happening now, remember also though there is a 10 to 30 year lag in cause and effect with our emissions and the ones now being generated as a result of the multitude of feedback loops that are now kicking in .
Yet more evidence that we are absolutely fucked and can’t turn this unfolding catastrophe around. Brace for imminent impact, ” Only Love Remains” GMP.
This excellent documentary is embedded below;
BBC Global Dimming Documentary
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I'm an anti-imperialist, environmental activist and blue ocean sailor, who is passionate about the earth and all it's inhabitants without favour. Brace for imminent impact as we bare witness to the non-linear unraveling of the biosphere and habitability disappearing for most if not all complex life on the only habitable planet we know of. To quote President Niinistö in North Russia: ‘If We Lose the Arctic, We Lose the World’. Folks we have lost the Arctic.
Kevin Hester 
Our predicament is always worse than we know;
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New paper on the AME, it’s worse than previously thought
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05122-0?fbclid=IwAR1how2Uerhp5J9Y67Odab2ClybV4Vy9593fwngVwjRpuHYBjvCCLrDdty0
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[…] “Anyway, the net effect was that the temperature started to rise from 3480 BC, so it makes sense to calculate temperature anomalies versus that year as pre-industrial base. The rise from pre-industrial to 2020 could thus be as much as 2.29°C, which would mean that the thresholds set at the Paris Agreement have already been crossed and the rise from pre-industrial may well exceed 3°C soon, in turn effectively making 3°C the (new) threshold that should not be crossed.”As a footnote don’t forget the Aerosol Masking Effect or Global Dimming. Dr James E Hansen described the AME as our Faustian Bargain, more on that sleeping giant here; Global Dimming Keeping the Planet Habitable […]
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Conscious ignorance and covering of the aerosol masking effect
We must assume that the aerosol masking effect is consciously ignored by many
scientists. As explained by (Thunström, 2014), this behavior can be labeled ‘strategic ignorance’ for the purpose of avoiding feelings of guilt about the situation. (Schwartz,2012) explained this behavior as ‘willful ignorance’ to avoid facing the hard truth that might cause strong, negative emotions.
Click to access 2211.16115.pdf
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[…] Global Dimming Keeping the Planet Habitable […]
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The latest from Dr James E Hansen
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[…] atmosphere, and by doing so, diminishing aerosols’ cooling ability to offset global warming.”https://kevinhester.live/2016/06/17/global-dimming-keeping-the-planet-habitable/As the ongoing collapse unfolds as always, I’ll add additional links and information below in […]
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[…] activity will cause our extinction. Our extinction could result from a reduction in aerosol masking or the meltdown of some of the world’s nuclear facilities. The latter phenomenon would cause […]
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This is an excellent summary of factors affecting warming of both the atmosphere and the oceans, with an excellent analysis of how decreased aerosols are having direct warming consequences.
Dr James E Hansen posits that the aerosols can fall from the atmosphere in 6 weeks, so any rapid decline has a rapid effect. He also dubbed the Aerosol Masking Effect Our Faustian Bargain.
I’m a new subscriber.
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This is a remarkably good article from the corporate media with some good details on how the lowering of aerosols from shipping is contributing to marine heat waves!
The Aerosol Masking Effect, what Dr James E Hanson called our “Faustian Bargain.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/pacific-marine-heat-wave-1.6936075?fbclid=IwAR33J4YU_t7fxQsGUwvN_0h5z4CUFOhH3QU92XdKiBOTQLDIBGuAqHdnMTc
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Some important details on the AME but not a hint of urgency. Still worth listening for the physics.
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Leon Simons twitter post on the AME
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Abstract
Aerosols cool Earth’s climate indirectly by increasing low cloud brightness and their coverage (Cf), constituting the aerosol indirect forcing (AIF). The forcing partially offsets the greenhouse warming and positively correlates with the climate sensitivity. However, it remains highly uncertain. Here, we show direct observational evidence for strong forcing from Cf adjustment to increased aerosols and weak forcing from cloud liquid water path adjustment. We estimate that the Cf adjustment drives between 52% and 300% of additional forcing to the Twomey effect over the ocean and a total AIF of −1.1 ± 0.8 W m−2. The Cf adjustment follows a power law as a function of background cloud droplet number concentration, Nd . It thus depends on time and location and is stronger when Nd is low. Cf only increases substantially when background clouds start to drizzle, suggesting a role for aerosol-precipitation interactions. Our findings highlight the Cf adjustment as the key process for reducing the uncertainty of AIF and thus future climate projections.
https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/sciadv.adh7716?fbclid=IwAR3dJDgrnxO-3vpa93vfxVI2iZDMqCzVnbtCQZtuvvAsoxE-ZJ0-GtdJo24
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Whilst I agree with Dr Hansen on the role aerosols are playing, I also think the other 60 feedback loops we have triggered, which Professor Peter Wadhams indicated are “Multiplicative”, are all playing a role in the accelerating runaway.
https://mailchi.mp/caa/global-warming-acceleration-causes-and-consequences?fbclid=IwAR23hFNOA5TOvljKPiv0cbzQq5e2zSTocMxvgpjS_s7Bd9BZN8u3fU__ebk
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“For example, our useful efforts to reduce sulfur emissions may have actually increased warming, because sulfate particles reflect sunlight–bouncing it back into space.”
George W Bush no less:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/transcripts/bushglobal_061101.htm
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‘Jan 18, 2024 The Great Simplification – with Nate Hagens
On this episode, Nate is joined by climate researcher Leon Simons to unpack recent trends in global heating during 2023 and potential explanations and subsequent projections for the coming year. While the connection between human emitted greenhouse gasses and global warming is scientifically agreed upon, the other complexities and feedbacks of our climate system are still just beginning to be understood. Today, Leon theorizes on the intensity of aerosol masking from particulates such as sulfur, based on the connection between recent changes in marine fuel sulfur requirements and corresponding climate data. How will the global trend towards aerosol reductions affect near and long term global heating? What does this catch-22 mean for potential future climate action and policy? How should we be thinking about creating a more simplified global system in response to the unknown unknowns of our potential future climate?”
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Leon Simons who co publishes with Dr. James E. Hansen has been interviewed on the AME
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Well, this is going to be bloody inconvenient, isn’t it?
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[…] first wrote about “The Best Kept Secret in Climate Science”, in my 2016 article titled: “Global Dimming Keeping the Planet Habitable”. That blog has many more relevant links in the comments section for the inquisitive. The embedded […]
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