Global Warming?! Where?

It seems like people these days are considerably concerned about global warming and its effects on our lives all over the world. Because of this people are going out of their way to do all sorts of crazy things in order to decrease the amount of air pollution they are causing. But here are a few research papers and discoveries that may answer the question: is there global warming? Because as far as I am concerned, we aren't doing nearly as bad as we used to.

For example, a newly completed study found in Geophysical Research Letters discusses how the rise in temperature in Europe is related to both the removal of pollution as well as the creation of it. The concept isn't new, in fact the theory has been known as Global Dimming for the last few decades. The research concluded that in certain areas of Europe the temperature has risen faster than could be explained by just the idea of global warming. In fact, they concluded that the extra increase in temperature was caused by the lack of pollution allowing direct radiation from the sun to strike the earth's surface. That is, the pollution in the air is reflecting a portion of the sun's radiation. So that is something you might not have heard from your friend who drives his Prius smugly because he believes he is averting global warming.



One idea that most people don't consider about global warming is that what if it was good for us and really wasn't that bad? For instance, in colder countries that were once stricken by cold this could be an escape that allows higher populations to thrive there. Tómas Jóhannesson, a geophysicist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office said this, “It’s not surprising that the warming effects of climate change can be beneficial for a cold country like Iceland." Or maybe the climate change can help the current weather patterns so there are fewer storms and natural disasters. Researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who reported in May that Atlantic hurricanes may actually decrease, with a projected 45 percent drop in tropical storms and hurricanes by the end of the century due to the climate change.

So the question now is this: Is there really global warming and is it really all that bad?