The Daily Gamecock

Issue date: 11/18/08 Section: Viewpoints

Aaron Gadbury First-year public relations student

Since the beginning of the year, my clothing style has varied more than normal. This is not because I am trying to keep up with changing fads. It is because of how unpredictable the weather has been.

Some days I am completely comfortable in a T-shirt and shorts, but the next day could call for a heavy winter jacket. I believe that the constantly changing weather patterns are due to global warming.

In the world today, there is a joint consensus that global warming is happening all around us, and if people don't act, then individuals' well-beings are going to be in grave danger. But global warming isn't the only thing that seems to be threatening our planet's health. Another severe climate problem called global dimming is terrorizing different ecosystems on the planet.

Global dimming occurs when atmospheric brown clouds - a collection of aerosols caused by the burning of fossil fuels, wood and plants - absorb the sunlight before it reaches the ground. Brown clouds also reflect the rays of the sun back into space. At first glance, someone might believe that absorbing heat and reflecting rays back into space should reduce the temperature hikes due to global warming. But the two trends that are a result of atmospheric brown clouds only mask the impacts of the changing climate. The temperature of the earth still rises in part because of greenhouse gases.

The brown cloud phenomenon not only masks temperature rises, but it also melts glaciers in the Himalayas. Brown clouds that absorb heat touch the tips of the glaciers. The Chinese Academy of Sciences claims that these Himalayan glaciers have decreased in size by 5 percent. If current melting rates stay consistent, they may shrink up to 75 percent by the year 2050.

The brown clouds that have caused global dimming don't only run the risk of an increase in sea levels, but they also threaten the world's food supply. The lack of sunlight causes more extreme weather conditions that are unfavorable for plant growth.

The pollutants that make up the brown clouds also endanger our health. Some have been found that are the size of the Indian Ocean. And these clouds move fast. They are able to cross entire continents in just a matter of days. So the problem is global.

The greenhouse gas and global dimming crises aren't going to be easy ones to solve. This is because we must solve them simultaneously. Simply getting rid of pollution that cause brown clouds without fixing the greenhouse effect can prove disastrous. Science Daily states that doing that could push global temperatures into a crucial and dangerous threshold.

One solution that could help decrease the risk of both problems is condensing transit. If more people could ride together on buses, trains and even cars, the emission of the pollutants could be lowered sufficiently.

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