Clear Skies = Global Warming?

Last month's lunar eclipse was especially bright, and that may reveal a new factor in the global warming debate.

In lunar eclipses, the Earth block light going directly from the sun to the moon, but the moon is still lit up by light that is diffused through the Earth's atmosphere.

A brighter moon during an eclipse is then caused by an atmosphere that is particularly dust-free.

It turns out that lunar eclipses have been pretty bright for over 10 years, even since the dust from the Mt. Pinatubo eruption started to dissipate. This correlates well with the recent upturn in global temperatures, and offers a falsifiable theory as well: more light getting through to the moon also means more light and heat getting to the Earth's surface. Interestingly, lower temperatures in the 60's, 70's, and 80's correlate well with the more frequent eruptions of dusty volcanoes in those years.