by tomrod on 4/5/25, 12:58 PM
> the team has turned to a single satellite, NASA’s Terra, which has been monitoring the planet for nearly a quarter-century. Looking at the same cloud systems, the team found exactly the same trends, with cloud coverage falling by about 1.5% per decade, Tselioudis says. “It’s only now that the signal seems to be coming out of the noise.” Bjorn Stevens, a climate scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, says a couple percentage points may not sound important. “But if you calculate these trends, it’s massive,” he says. “This would indicate a cloud feedback that’s off the charts.”
Hurricanes and Cyclones will get worse. This is bad news for folks that wish to live near many coasts.
by kacesensitive on 4/5/25, 1:16 PM
Earth gets over 170,000 terawatts of solar energy every day—10,000 times more than humanity uses. Losing just a fraction of our cloud cover means a massive, invisible throttle is coming off the climate system. If this trend holds, we’re not just warming—we’re stepping on the gas.
by janjanmax on 4/5/25, 2:33 PM
The earth has dimmed 1 Watt/Meter. The loss of cloud coverage is due to Carbon Dioxide energy. It doesn’t allow cloud formation as the freezing point is increased. This CO2 effect on clouds was first published in 2017. The weather models of the 80s, 90s and oughts did not account for this. A 2019 Model showed high global temperatures by 2028-2032 in the high improbable range; however, those temperatures were experienced with a very close precision in 2024. You all can look this up.
by perihelions on 4/5/25, 2:25 PM
by Shekelphile on 4/5/25, 2:11 PM
My pet theory is that we are only a few decades away from turning earth into venus 2.0 at this point. It feels like we keep finding new catastrophic tipping points every few months at this point.
It is worth mentioning that we are already in the last few hundred million years of earth's lifespan -- the sun was much dimmer last time the planet had this much GHG and warming going on. We may have already set the conditions for the oceans to boil away and the heat death of our planet without massive geoengineering.
by hintymad on 4/5/25, 5:07 PM
A naive question: why is global warming bad for the earth, especially for the environmentalists? I mean I get it that it will be bad for human, but the biosphere thrived in much warmer pre-historical ages, right? Or rain forests still have the highest biodiversity nowadays, right? For people who hate human activities to preserve a thriving earth, wouldn't they welcome global warming?
by imchillyb on 4/5/25, 2:20 PM
There is an ancient text that predicts every body of water becoming like blood.
There is an algae that flourishes in warm water that almost solidifies water into a reddish goop. That goop is much like blood.
We, society, are making this happen. And, it’s happening at a prodigious rate.
The earth’s cooling mechanisms rely upon these bodies of water. The warmer the water the greater the chances of these algal blooms.
Yay us.
by jmclnx on 4/5/25, 1:06 PM
Interesting, the area I live in is expected to get more rain as climate change gets worse. So I would think we would have more cloud cover. But the article is about "reflective clouds".
As I look out my window, I see dark clouds right now as opposed to white fluffy clouds. Will need to note the colors as time goes on for my fully non-scientific surveys :)
by RecentlyThawed on 4/5/25, 1:21 PM
How large a scale and with how many countries participating would cloud seeding be able to reverse these effects? Last I remember it was only a few countries in Asia that were attempting anything of the sort.
by nurettin on 4/5/25, 1:54 PM
Wait, doesn't that mean less greenhouse effect?
by shimmeringleaf on 4/5/25, 1:42 PM
by ingohelpinger on 4/5/25, 3:22 PM
cloud seeding?
by srameshc on 4/5/25, 2:19 PM
> Climate scientists now need to figure out what’s causing these cloud changes..
Only if we have enough funding for the scientists to study these important changes for the sake of future generations
by rikafurude21 on 4/5/25, 12:56 PM
Cloud-exit must be reversed! Move to AWS for mother earth!
by themullet on 4/5/25, 1:26 PM
It's worth noting Neptune clouds are doing similar due to the suns 11 year solar cycle.
https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/neptunes-disappeari...
AI summary; "Yes, astronomers have observed that Neptune's prominent clouds have largely disappeared, and NASA scientists suggest this phenomenon is linked to the sun's 11-year solar cycle and its impact on Neptune's atmosphere"