The Inconvenient Truth Behind Global Cooling, Global Dimming and Global Warming May Be More Than Global Whining!

There is a debate in the scientific community about the supposed effects of global cooling as compared to the alleged consequences of global warming. To those not initiated in the intricacies of the debate and wondering what on earth this is all about, global cooling might appear to be the latest fad after global warming. Rather than tossing the latter around like a political football, here are some facts.

What is global cooling?

In simplest terms, the notion of global cooling involves a gradual establishment and noted increase in the growth of glaciers. A brainchild of 1970's scientific understanding, it was generally believed that since the mid 1940s the earth was gradually cooling. In 1968 author Paul Ehrlich commented on the phenomenon by asserting that the use of fossil fuels released particles into the air which would filter out some sunlight and thus produce a gradual cooling of the earth.

Global cooling is brought on by global dimming.

Terming the process of an increase in the atmosphere's particle count due to human interference in natural processes as a global dimming, scientists have shown that a noticeable decrease in temperature has been detected over the course of decades. In addition to the foregoing, condensation trails that are produced by jet aircrafts are also shown to have a contributing effect on the global dimming and thus the overall global cooling.

The Nature website published an August 2002 article that focused on the relationship between the aircraft grounding in the wake of the 9-11 attacks and the subsequent increase in the earth's temperature by about 1° Celsius.

Opponents of what some have named a pseudo science while others call it the religion of the church of Al Gore decry global warming, pointing to both global dimming as well as global cooling as a fact that proves Mr. Gore et. al. wrong.

What is global warming?