ever get the feeling it's gloomier? you could be right. A team of scientists sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have concluded that cities from Beijing to new Delhi are getting darker.
The cause of the "dimmer effect" are man-made Atmospheric brown Clouds (ABCs) taht can aggravate the impact of green-house-include climate change. ABCs, the result of burning fossil fuels and biomas, lead to the formaton of black carbon and soot particles that absorb sunlight and heat the air.
According to the UNEP team, around 13 megacities have so far been indentified as ABC hotspots. Guang Zhou, China, has recorded a reduction of sunlight of more than 20 percent since 1970s. "In China, the observed dimming trend from the 1950s to the 1990s was about 3-4 percent per decade, with the larger trends after the 1970s," a report issued by the team states.
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