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Troubled waters
Ben Cawthra/eyevine
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© 2016 Reed Business Information Ltd, England New Scientist is published weekly by Reed Business Information Ltd. ISSN 0262 4079. New Scientist (Online) ISSN 2059 5387 Registered at the Post Office as a newspaper and printed in England by Williams Gibbons (Wolverhampton)
Troubled waters Global browning can only be understood as part of a wider problem ANYONE remember global it might at first sound almost dimming? About 30 years comical – but like global dimming, ago, climatologists noticed it is anything but. All over the a disconcerting trend in the world, increased inflows of dead organic matter are making lakes amount of sunlight reaching and rivers murkier. The full Earth’s surface. Measurements extent of the problem is still soon confirmed their suspicions: being assessed, but it is likely to across the world from the 1950s onwards, sunshine had declined be bad news for wildlife. It is also bad news for humans, because it by about 2 per cent per decade. makes water purification more In some places, it was down by as much as 10 per cent. difficult and expensive. The culprit turned out to be Somewhat predictably, the air pollution – particularly small cause of global browning is also particles of soot and droplets “Even if we do find a way of sulphuric acid. People soon to tackle global browning, raised concerns that dimming who knows what the would hit agricultural yields and exacerbate climate change’s effect knock-on effects will be” on weather patterns. industrial pollution, although Global dimming was a real not in the form of smog. Instead, and serious problem, but smaller it is largely the unanticipated and easier to tackle than global consequence of another clean-up warming. As factories and power success story: the reduction of stations cleaned up their acts – acid rain (see page 34). at least with respect to smog That hangover will eventually and soot – dimming slowed and, dwindle, but browning also seems in some places, reversed. From about the mid 1980s onwards, the to be driven by climate change developed world has experienced itself. If so, it will be harder to tackle than global dimming. And brightening. As a result, little is if we do tackle it successfully, heard of global dimming in the there may be unexpected knockWest these days, although it remains a problem for many parts on effects – as there were with of Asia, Africa and South America. dimming. The pollutants in that case, while generally undesirable, Now there is a new pollution alleviated climate change by problem on the horizon: global reflecting sunlight back into space. browning. Like global dimming,
All of this is a useful reminder that the environment is made up of complex and interconnected systems. We like to put environmental issues into neat silos: global warming, global dimming, global browning, ocean acidification. But they are all manifestations of a single underlying problem: treating the atmosphere as an open sewer. At least countries seem to be belatedly pulling together to do something about the core problem. Last year’s Paris deal on climate change was better than many had hoped, albeit mostly fine words rather than firm actions. And there is now widespread acknowledgement that the record rainfall and unprecedented flooding that have swamped the UK over the past month were exacerbated by climate change (see page 11). There is a huge amount of work still to do and worrying signs of a resumption of business as usual. As always, the scale and complexity of the challenge makes it hard to grasp and harder still to rise to. But if we need a symbol of how urgent and interlinked our environmental problems are, we could do a lot worse than an image of brown floodwater under a leaden sky. n 9 January 2016 | NewScientist | 5
LEADER
LOCATIONS UK 110 High Holborn, London, WC1V 6EU Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1200 Fax +44 (0) 20 7611 1250 Australia Tower 2, 475 Victoria Avenue, Chatswood, NSW 2067 Tel +61 2 9422 8559 Fax +61 2 9422 8552 USA 50 Hampshire St, Floor 5, Cambridge, MA 02139 Tel +1 781 734 8770 Fax +1 720 356 9217
Subscription Service For our latest subscription offers, visit newscientist.com/subscribe Customer and subscription services are also available by: Telephone +44 (0) 330 333 9470 Email [email protected] Web newscientist.com/subscribe Post New Scientist, Rockwood House, Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 3DH One year subscription (51 issues) UK £150 cONTACTS Contact us newscientist.com/contact Who’s who newscientist.com/people General & media enquiries Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1202 [email protected] Editorial Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1202 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Picture desk Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1268 Display Advertising Tel +44 (0) 20 7611 1291 [email protected] Recruitment Advertising UK Tel +44 (0) 20 8652 4444 [email protected] UK Newsstand Tel +44 (0) 20 3148 3333 Newstrade distributed by Marketforce UK Ltd, 2nd Floor, 5 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London E14 5HU Syndication Tribune Content Agency Tel +44 (0) 20 7588 7588 [email protected]
© 2016 Reed Business Information Ltd, England New Scientist is published weekly by Reed Business Information Ltd. ISSN 0262 4079. New Scientist (Online) ISSN 2059 5387 Registered at the Post Office as a newspaper and printed in England by Williams Gibbons (Wolverhampton)
Troubled waters Global browning can only be understood as part of a wider problem ANYONE remember global it might at first sound almost dimming? About 30 years comical – but like global dimming, ago, climatologists noticed it is anything but. All over the a disconcerting trend in the world, increased inflows of dead organic matter are making lakes amount of sunlight reaching and rivers murkier. The full Earth’s surface. Measurements extent of the problem is still soon confirmed their suspicions: being assessed, but it is likely to across the world from the 1950s onwards, sunshine had declined be bad news for wildlife. It is also bad news for humans, because it by about 2 per cent per decade. makes water purification more In some places, it was down by as much as 10 per cent. difficult and expensive. The culprit turned out to be Somewhat predictably, the air pollution – particularly small cause of global browning is also particles of soot and droplets “Even if we do find a way of sulphuric acid. People soon to tackle global browning, raised concerns that dimming who knows what the would hit agricultural yields and exacerbate climate change’s effect knock-on effects will be” on weather patterns. industrial pollution, although Global dimming was a real not in the form of smog. Instead, and serious problem, but smaller it is largely the unanticipated and easier to tackle than global consequence of another clean-up warming. As factories and power success story: the reduction of stations cleaned up their acts – acid rain (see page 34). at least with respect to smog That hangover will eventually and soot – dimming slowed and, dwindle, but browning also seems in some places, reversed. From about the mid 1980s onwards, the to be driven by climate change developed world has experienced itself. If so, it will be harder to tackle than global dimming. And brightening. As a result, little is if we do tackle it successfully, heard of global dimming in the there may be unexpected knockWest these days, although it remains a problem for many parts on effects – as there were with of Asia, Africa and South America. dimming. The pollutants in that case, while generally undesirable, Now there is a new pollution alleviated climate change by problem on the horizon: global reflecting sunlight back into space. browning. Like global dimming,
All of this is a useful reminder that the environment is made up of complex and interconnected systems. We like to put environmental issues into neat silos: global warming, global dimming, global browning, ocean acidification. But they are all manifestations of a single underlying problem: treating the atmosphere as an open sewer. At least countries seem to be belatedly pulling together to do something about the core problem. Last year’s Paris deal on climate change was better than many had hoped, albeit mostly fine words rather than firm actions. And there is now widespread acknowledgement that the record rainfall and unprecedented flooding that have swamped the UK over the past month were exacerbated by climate change (see page 11). There is a huge amount of work still to do and worrying signs of a resumption of business as usual. As always, the scale and complexity of the challenge makes it hard to grasp and harder still to rise to. But if we need a symbol of how urgent and interlinked our environmental problems are, we could do a lot worse than an image of brown floodwater under a leaden sky. n 9 January 2016 | NewScientist | 5