This video (for copyright reasons) has now been split up into different parts. Yous can find them all here.
BBC: Global Dimming
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This video (for copyright reasons) has now been split up into different parts. Yous can find them all here.
Is global dimming really worse than a 10 degree rise in temperatures? They didn’t really fully explain the pros and cons. If we can’t lower greenhouse gas emissions why not keep polluting? I’m not saying that is a good idea I am just saying from the video I feel that we can’t change global warming.
The video “Global Dimming” does not deny global warming. It says that reducing global dimming may speed up global warming because 10 Celsius degree warming is enough to release vast amount of greenhouse gas. Though an urgent action is needed to deal with these climate issues, there is no solution except increasing global dimming – which is considered as suicidal. But as Chandler said, could global dimming that worse? At least, we know that increasing global dimming can slow down global warming, so why should we take a risk to find out a new solution which we are unsure about its effectiveness? By the time we discover a new solution, it might be too late to halt global warming. There are too many uncertainties here, and I feel like we can’t do much about these climate issues.
I never realized how tricky an issue global dimming truly is. Similar to what Chandler and Sol already noted in their comments, global dimming seems to have a tension about it, as if it is a push-pull situation. If we aim to reduce pollution which will decrease global dimming, we are in severe danger for rapid global warming. So global dimming is good, in a sense. The push-pull exists between the cooling and the warming effects, making the climate extremely sensitive to carbon dioxide levels. However, there are severe implications of global dimming on human health. (I was pleased to hear this mentioned in the video because I believe there are a vast number of connections between human and environmental health that are often never brought to the surface). It seems that the push-pull nature of this situation would call for one stronger side conquering the other. But in fact, this is absolutely the worst result! How else do you win? It seems that one side cannot dominate. Rather a balance must be found, relating to our controlling fossil fuel use, between global warming and global dimming in hopes of achieving stability for Earth’s climate. Again, this is tricky. Despite the video’s somewhat despairing tone, I choose to remain hopeful that, today and in the future, new research, innovations, and actions will be instituted to reduce our dependence on dirty energy while striving to protect the Earth from intense solar heat.
I am slightly confused about the effects of global dimming. When discussing lava and volcanic ash, our notes say that “it is clear that short-term cooling by aerosols…is strongly outweighed by the long-term warming induced by the sustained release of CO2 in the atmosphere.” Isn’t this contradictory to the the information presented in the video, which says that air pollution has a cooling effect? Or is there a distinction between aerosals produced by volcanic activity and aerosals produced by human activity?
Like Kate, I was glad the video explained some of the effects on human health. Such negative effects are why we should take the risk (like Sol mentioned)of breaking this push-pull cycle between global dimming and warming.
Lastly, although I did think this video was mostly effective, I did feel many parts were overdramatized, such as the scenes with rapidly-changing images and intense music. The producers could have created emphasis and an urgent tone in other ways that were not as in-your-face…