Global Warming The Scientiest. Scientists Know why

Last year was the hottes on record, oceans boiled, glaciers melted at alarming rates, and it left scientists scrambling to understand exactly why.

To be more specific, the rapid surge in warming was supercharged by a dearth of low-lying clouds over the oceans, according to the research — findings which may have alarming implications for future warming.

The Earth’s albedo has been declining since the 1970s, according to the report, due in part to the melting of light-colored snow and sea ice, exposing darker land and water which absorb more of the sun’s energy, heating up the planet.

Low clouds also feed into this effect as they reflect away sunlight.

Tapio Schneider, a climate scientist at the California Institute of Technology, said the worrying implication of the research is if global warming is responsible for a substantial amount of cloud cover change, “we may see stronger global warming than previously predicted.”

Clouds may seem simple, even mundane, but they are endlessly complex and scientists remain far from unraveling how they behave. They are “one of the biggest headaches” in climate science, Goessling said.

But figuring out how clouds will respond to global warming is key, Zalkina said. “It literally determines how much future warming is in store.”