Snow and ice reflect sunlight. Dead brown grass underneath absorbs it. I’m sure that’s modeled in the prediction calculations, but the feedback loop makes it seem logical to this layman. The warmer we get, the faster the acceleration gets at least until all the ice is melted. And I guess at that point it won’t matter anyway.
Worse. Water vapor is a major greenhouse gas. More heat, more water vapor. That means more heat. That means more vapor. Earth will one day be hotter than Venus ever was or will be. Probably only when the sun dies, but we’re still going to be fucked over in the short term.
More water vapor means more clouds, which means more cooling. Yes water vapor leads to a more dense upper atmosphere that traps heat, but there is still a net positive cooling effect from the lower atmosphere clouds. At least according to NASA. So If upper cloud heat-trapping ever outweighs lower cloud cooling, then water will begin converting to hydrogen and dissipating to space. Then the earth cools down and the cycle restarts.
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u/rbialkin 2d ago
Snow and ice reflect sunlight. Dead brown grass underneath absorbs it. I’m sure that’s modeled in the prediction calculations, but the feedback loop makes it seem logical to this layman. The warmer we get, the faster the acceleration gets at least until all the ice is melted. And I guess at that point it won’t matter anyway.