As people across the globe mobilize to demand bold action to combat the climate crisis and scientific findings about looming "environmental breakdown" pile up, a startling new study published Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience warns that human-caused global warming could cause stratocumulus clouds to totally disappear in as little as a century, triggering up to 8°C (14°F) of additional warming.
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| A new study warns that if the Earth's atmospheric carbon hits a certain level, stratocumulus clouds could completely vanish, causing the planet's temperatures to skyrocket even higher. |
Stratocumulus clouds cover about two-thirds of the Earth and help keep it cool by reflecting solar radiation back to space. Recent research has suggested that planetary warming correlates with greater cloud loss, stoking fears about a feedback loop that could spell disaster.
For this study, researchers at the California Institute of Technology used a supercomputer simulation to explore what could lead these low-lying, lumpy clouds to vanish completely. As science journalist Natalie Wolchover laid out in a lengthy piece for Quanta Magazine titled "A World Without Clouds".
Read the story from Common Dreams by Jessica Corbett - “A World Without Clouds. Think About That a Minute': New Study Details Possibility of Devastating Climate Feedback Loop.”
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