We always have
been informed and alerted about the consequences of the global warming, but
this specific phenomenon it is not only one which is happening at the current
moment. Nowadays, the world has been suffering several results of our
irresponsible attitudes against nature, which have concluded in undesirable
events for the whole humanity and the world we live in. Global dimming has been
proven to be an equal threat than global warming and we have to give it the
real relevance it deserves.
Global dimming is a phenomenon
that consists on the gradual reduction of the sun irradiation which enters at
the Earth’s surface. The consequences of this reduction are that the world is
not receiving enough light; therefore, it has been producing a drop in the
regular temperatures, as it has been observed since the 1950s.
This climate change was
discovered by Atsumu Ohmura, in the mid-1980s. He compared the average
temperature of that decade with previous ones from 1950. Also, Gerry Stanhill
made researches about this topic all around the world, published many articles
and coined the term as “global dimming”.
The probable cause is the
incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and wood which not only produces
invisible carbon dioxide –the principal greenhouse gas responsible for global
warming—but also tiny airborne particles of soot, ash, sulphur compounds and
others pollutants that made clouds more reflective, so the incoming sunlight is
reflected back into space and less reaches the face of the Earth. In addition,
pollution dims the surface of the ocean by absorbing solar radiation.
The consequences are highly
tragic, because this phenomenon is produced by a chain effect: the contaminated
air of Europe and North America does not allow sunlight to reach the ocean,
which generate a fall in its temperature. Since the ocean is colder, the water
resists evaporation and the required amount of rain is failed to reach The
Sahel, Northern Africa. It is now
disclosed that the complex famines of 1970s and 1980s were caused by the less
number of rains. "My main concern is global dimming is also having a
detrimental impact on the Asian monsoon," says Professor Veerhabhadran
Ramanathan, one of the world's leading climate scientists. "We are talking
about billions of people." The monsoon rains of Asia provide rainfall to
almost half of the world’s population. If Global Dimming is able to decrease
the number of rains then half of the world’s population –around three billion
people— will be starving.
In our opinion, this is an
unknown issue and we have to pay more attention to it, because it has caused
more tragedies than the overexposed global warming. We, as Latin-Americans, are
not an influent part of the cause of this catastrophe, but it is our duty to
raise awareness about it
