Union of Concerned Scientists

JANUARY 7, 2025

Albedo is the total reflection of incoming solar radiation by Earth. Its a great question, but the warming effect from heat-trapping gases far outweighs the cooling effect from industrial aerosols. Important questions are still being sorted out Climate scientists are still trying to figure out what exactly made 2023 and 2024 so warm.

2024 286

2024 2023 Fossil Fuels Atmosphere 286

Real Climate

AUGUST 9, 2021

As climate scientists we tend to look at the IPCC reports a little differently than the general public might. Here are a few things that mark this report out from previous versions that relate to issues we’ve discussed here before: Extreme events are increasingly connected to climate (duh!) 1981) which can be seen here.

Sea Level 361

Sea Level 2012 Radiation Ocean 361

Physics World

NOVEMBER 5, 2021

Tiny particles of plastic in the atmosphere can affect Earth’s climate, according to Laura Revell at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and colleagues. Although the threats these microplastics pose to natural ecosystems are now being studied extensively, their influence on Earth’s climate is still virtually unknown.

Atmosphere 111

Atmosphere Radiation Cooling Climate Scientist 111

Frontiers

AUGUST 7, 2023

For example, Antarctica acts to cool our planet by reflecting solar radiation back to space by virtue of the brightness of its snow surface. The danger is that the Antarctic sea ice is starting to behave like the Arctic, with sustained loss of ocean cover and consequent absorption of solar radiation.

Ocean 98

Ocean Fossil Fuels Radiation Environmental Science 98

HumanNature

APRIL 10, 2023

Student in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University Most people remember the water cycle they learned in school: water evaporates from lakes, rivers, and the ocean, air carrying this moisture rises, cools, condenses, and forms clouds, and these clouds precipitate water back down to the surface.

Climate Change 52

Climate Change Paris Agreement Atmosphere Cooling 52

Real Climate

NOVEMBER 29, 2023

In an unchanging climate, the random fluctuations would lead to warming in some parts of the world and cooling in others. In a world with just random local fluctuations but no climate change, about half the weather stations would show a (more or less significant) warming, the other half a cooling. I could go on.

Greenhouse 333

Greenhouse Radiation Cooling Carbon Dioxide 333

Real Climate

OCTOBER 12, 2021

In this, he is in violent agreement with Isaac Held, his colleague at GFDL, and indeed most climate scientists. He makes a eloquent argument for a hierarchy of modeling where simpler, functional, models can contribute a lot to understanding in advance of the more complete and more detailed versions turning up.

Atmosphere 340

Atmosphere Ocean Greenhouse Climate Change 340