Summarised by Centrist
A new climate science study claims that clouds and sunlight—not carbon dioxide—are driving global warming.
In the study, scientists Ned Nikolov and Karl Zeller challenge the mainstream view that CO2 is the primary cause of global warming.
Using satellite data, they argue that changes in the planet’s albedo—its ability to reflect sunlight—are responsible for the rise in temperatures, and not increasing greenhouse gases.
“When clouds decrease, the planetary albedo drops and more radiation reaches the surface, causing warmer temperatures,” Nikolov said.
Nikolov also criticises the current understanding of the greenhouse effect, stating that atmospheric pressure, not CO2, is what actually influences global temperatures.
“This is why when you get up in elevation, it gets cooler—either in the mountains or when you’re flying on an aeroplane—because the pressure drops with height,” he said.
Institutions like NASA and the IPCC maintain that human-induced greenhouse gas emissions are the primary contributors to climate change.
However, in the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, it says that changes in “cloudiness” may contribute to this, as clouds affect how much sunlight is reflected or absorbed.
Nikolov says while climate science acknowledges cloud cover is decreasing, they’re wrong to think it’s just natural changes in the climate. Yet he admits: “We have hypotheses about what’s driving the cloud cover changes, but we don’t have an exact mechanism or a conclusive theory.”
