The confidence of older people is that even before the Sun shone brighter than now, as it turned out, has more than good reason. British scientist Dr. Gerry Stanhill (Gerry Stanhill) on the basis of data analysis of long-term observations have established that the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth's surface, continuously and rapidly declining. According to the BBC, Dr Stanhill, working now in Israel, in 2001 named this phenomenon "global dimming" (global dimming).

Comparing data on the total amount of solar radiation reaching the surface of the Earth, for the period from the 1950's to the present day, Dr. Stanhill found that this indicator has declined quite markedly - by 22%. Moreover, this tendency does not have a local character - comparison of observations made in various areas of the world, gives a broadly similar picture. So, in the USA sunlight "faded" on 10%, on the territory of the USSR - nearly 30%, in the British Isles by 16%. In General, the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth, decreased by 2% every decade since the 1950s and until the 1990 agricultural

The mechanism and consequences of this phenomenon yet been studied insufficiently. Perhaps, the phenomenon of "global dimming" caused by the pollution of the planet products of industrial activity. Air pollution solid dust particles leads to the reflection of the solar radiation back into space and, in particular, to change the optical properties of clouds. Dust particles serve as centers of condensation, resulting in drops in containing dust clouds more than usual, which, in turn, contributes to increased reflection of solar radiation.

The theory of Dr. Stanhill, initially met with disbelief by the scientific community, was recently confirmed its Australian colleagues, came to similar conclusions using a completely different method of accounting solar radiation. Experts raised the alarm.

A number of scientists expressed the assumption that ' global dimming" can lead to significant changes in climate processes on the planet and in atmospheric circulation. Perhaps, it is cause terrible drought that hit Saharan Africa in the 1970s - 1980s, which led to hundreds of thousands of victims. There is reason to believe that something similar before our eyes is with Asia, where nearly half of the Earth's population. "In my opinion, global dimming has a devastating impact on the Asian monsoon, " said Professor (University of California, San Diego) Virabhadra Ramanathan (Veerhabhadran Ramanathan). - We are talking about billions of people".

Very disturbing fact is that this effect contributed to a significant underestimation of the true scale of the greenhouse effect, leading to warming. Scientists have long noted a discrepancy between the amount of solar energy absorbed in the atmosphere due to gauge the presence of nitrogen dioxide, and the relatively modest increase in the average temperature by 0.6 degrees. Identified by English chemist "the dimming effect is", having the opposite effect, would greatly hide the greenhouse effect. This, in turn, may mean that the climate is much more sensitive to the greenhouse effect than previously thought. If so, this is very bad news, said Dr Peter Cox (Peter Cox), one of the leading experts on climate modelling. The fact is, that just in the last decade carbon dioxide greenhouse rose sharply, while the emission of dust particles, leading to oppositely directed effect of "global dimming", has been put under control.

"We find ourselves in a situation in which the allocation "cooling" atmosphere pollution is on the wane, and "warming" it's growing, " he stresses. - This means reducing cooling effect of the simultaneous increase in steps of heating, and this is a big problem".

Even the most pessimistic forecasts of the climate on the planet, in all likelihood, need to be adjusted in the worst of mankind side. The increase in the average temperature of 10 degrees by 2100 is more than real. Significant territories of our planet, perhaps destined to become a desert.