Scientists study old masters' paintings for clues about global warming
A team of scientists at the National Observatory of Athens have been looking at paintings created by artists such as Turner, Rubens, Rembrandt, Gainsborough and Hogarth in order to chart the changes in the atmosphere depicted at different periods in history.
This may seem a somewhat tenuous way of going about things, relying as it does a little too much on the artist's work being entirely an entirely realistic representation, but the idea certainly seems to be be making some waves in the scientific world. The correlation between sky colour and the number of pollutants present is helpful is showing them how the climate has altered naturally in the past, so that this can then be compared with how it has been changed by man-made pollutants in recent years.
The specific purpose of this study has been to throw some light (or not, as the case may be!) on a phenomenon known as 'global dimming'. This occurs when air pollution blocks sunlight - and, strangely enough, it is something of a double-edged sword, believed by scientists to actually act as a brake on global warming! Atmosphere changes in the paintings have been measured by looking at the relative amounts of red and green present in the sky. A higher amount of red means a more polluted sky. The reddest skies always seem to appear after a volcanic eruption, with such bad air pollution occurring one year that it was known as the 'year without a summer', and caused massive failure of harvests across Europe.
