Clean air is a good thing, right? Well, not if you believe the enviro-weenies. Less pollution in the air means clear skies. Clear skies means more sunlight reaches the Earth, and that contributes to Global Warming.

This latest report conflicts a previous report that said the Earth had continued dimming since the year 2000. But no matter how their views conflict, when you get to the heart of it all scientists seem to have a common goal. More funding.

Dr. Robert J. Charlson, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington and an author of a commentary that accompanied the three papers, said, "This set of papers, taken together, calls attention for more emphasis on research in these topics."

But he added, "Unfortunately, impediments have come up." Four years' worth of data from the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite is unanalyzed, he said, because there is no money for scientists to work with it.

Another satellite, the Deep Space Climate Observatory, which was scheduled to be launched on a space shuttle, awaits in storage. Proposed budget cuts in earth science research at NASA could limit the analysis of data from other satellites, Dr. Charlson said.