Let There Be Diminished Light!

That is where we're headed, according to the observations gathered from no fewer than 3,250 meteorological stations around the world whose statistics have led experts to the logical conclusion that wherever coal-fired furnaces are used - more than, but also inclusive of fossil fuels - aerosol and particulate pollution affects our atmosphere, permitting less light to illuminate our days.

Witness China, and particularly Beijing, whose huge industrial infrastructures are energized mostly through the use of coal. The world became knowledgeable, through witnessing the events of the World Olympics held in that metropolis, precisely how profoundly and immediately the atmosphere can be affected. When the government in Beijing ordered factories shut down for the duration of the Games, the wondrous sight of clearing skies became apparent.

The smog and fog and particulate unhealthiness of the industrial environment in China's heavily populated, busily industrialized giant cities ensure endemic health problems associated with diseases of the lungs, the heart, affecting Chinese from an early age into maturity and early deaths. Their quality of life is compromised in the interests of steadily increasing the country's GDP.

The effects of the post-industrial age were seen centuries ago, in Great Britain. The world's use of dirty coal has been well known to cause medical-health problems both for those who mine coal, labouring in unsafe conditions underground, and those who live with the industrial fall-out of energizing and heating with coal products.

But, as the report tells us, reports from locations as diverse and wide-flung as Baffin Island to Beijing to Buenos Aires, demonstrate that visibility in the atmosphere has decreased enormously over the past three decades "resulting in net global dimming over land", as reported in the journal Science.

Neither governments nor international corporations, nor indeed ordinary citizens consider limits to growth. To living frugally in our environment, using that which we require, and little more. Spreading the necessities of life among all those who require it, and limiting technological advances that only seem to complicate the fall-out in our environment, while we enjoy and take pleasure in personal, extraneous-to-need acquisitions and lifestyles.

There are some brave and environmentally-dedicated souls among us who eschew all but what they need to preserve life. They are destined to remain a minority. Until such time as extreme, unavoidable necessity drives all of us to that degree of acceptance, and that's not very likely, barring man-made or environmental catastrophes of the highest order.

In countries like China and India, heavily dependent on fossil fuel and predominantly coal-burning for energy sources, air pollution seen in heavily hazy skies have led to a substantial visibility decline. Clear, clean air is at a premium, as particulate matter hangs dully over the environment, occluding peoples' lungs, and diminishing prospects for normal passage of light.

As opposed to North America, where the U.S. and Canada have advanced toward tighter pollution controls from power plants, factories and vehicles. There, a slight decrease in visibility has been evidenced since 1979, continent-wide. Whereas in South America, Australia and Africa the trend is to lower visibility, linked to additional factors like wildfires and land clearing for agriculture.

These same researchers point as well to an intriguing theory that global dimming may be responsible for remediating some of the heat-trapping effects of global greenhouse gases. That sounds like an interesting balance of cause and effect; global warming slowed by atmospheric dimming.

Damn, no easy solutions anywhere; increasing levels of aerosols may also be responsible for initiating increased cloud formations, in turn impacting deleteriously on weather and water cycles.