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posted by chromas on Tuesday February 26 2019, @07:09PM   Printer-friendly
from the löylyä-lissää dept.

A recent report on climate simulations show that global warming could break up stratocumulus clouds[$], letting in more energy as High CO2 levels break up stratocumulus cloud decks, once the levels rise above 1,200 ppm. Stratocumulus provide no precipitation but do cover about 20% of the low-latitude oceans and are especially prevalent in the subtropics, cooling by providing shade. If they disappear then, according to calculations, the added sunlight hitting the ground or ocean would increase temperatures by over 8°C.

Now, new findings reported today in the journal Nature Geoscience make the case that the effects of cloud loss are dramatic enough to explain ancient warming episodes like the PETM — and to precipitate future disaster. Climate physicists at the California Institute of Technology performed a state-of-the-art simulation of stratocumulus clouds, the low-lying, blankety kind that have by far the largest cooling effect on the planet. The simulation revealed a tipping point: a level of warming at which stratocumulus clouds break up altogether. The disappearance occurs when the concentration of CO2 in the simulated atmosphere reaches 1,200 parts per million — a level that fossil fuel burning could push us past in about a century, under “business-as-usual” emissions scenarios. In the simulation, when the tipping point is breached, Earth’s temperature soars 8 degrees Celsius, in addition to the 4 degrees of warming or more caused by the CO2 directly.

Once clouds go away, the simulated climate “goes over a cliff,” said Kerry Emanuel, a climate scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A leading authority on atmospheric physics, Emanuel called the new findings “very plausible,” though, as he noted, scientists must now make an effort to independently replicate the work.

To imagine 12 degrees of warming, think of crocodiles swimming in the Arctic and of the scorched, mostly lifeless equatorial regions during the PETM. If carbon emissions aren’t curbed quickly enough and the tipping point is breached, “that would be truly devastating climate change,” said Caltech’s Tapio Schneider, who performed the new simulation with Colleen Kaul and Kyle Pressel.

Huber said the stratocumulus tipping point helps explain the volatility that’s evident in the paleoclimate record. He thinks it might be one of many unknown instabilities in Earth’s climate. “Schneider and co-authors have cracked open Pandora’s box of potential climate surprises,” he said, adding that, as the mechanisms behind vanishing clouds become clear, “all of a sudden this enormous sensitivity that is apparent from past climates isn’t something that’s just in the past. It becomes a vision of the future.”


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  • (Score: 5, Touché) by Snow on Tuesday February 26 2019, @08:52PM (8 children)

    by Snow (1601) on Tuesday February 26 2019, @08:52PM (#807248) Journal

    This argument sums up why I always piss in the pool.

    That fat mother fucker over there is pissing in the pool, so why can't I? Plus, if they didn't want me to piss in the pool, why did they make the bathrooms so far away?

    At least if I piss in the pool, I get to enjoy the moment of warmth.

    Starting Score:    1  point
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    Total Score:   5  
  • (Score: 1, Redundant) by cmdrklarg on Tuesday February 26 2019, @10:11PM (6 children)

    by cmdrklarg (5048) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday February 26 2019, @10:11PM (#807293)

    Yes, but if everyone pisses in the pool, pretty soon you'll be swimming in piss.

    --
    The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
    • (Score: 4, Touché) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday February 26 2019, @10:16PM

      by DeathMonkey (1380) on Tuesday February 26 2019, @10:16PM (#807296) Journal

      Exactly....

    • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @10:34PM (4 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @10:34PM (#807302)

      So after every fish and other creature that has pissed in the sea for a billion years, swimming in the ocean is swimming in piss?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @11:17PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 26 2019, @11:17PM (#807322)

        swimming in the ocean is swimming in piss?

        Why do you think the seawater is salty? (grin)

      • (Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Wednesday February 27 2019, @03:31PM (2 children)

        by cmdrklarg (5048) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 27 2019, @03:31PM (#807637)

        A swimming pool != the ocean. Plus, you are deliberately missing the point.

        --
        The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 27 2019, @08:48PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 27 2019, @08:48PM (#807807)

          The point being that the problematic components of the "piss" gets processed by nature to other less offensive stuff?

          • (Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Thursday February 28 2019, @04:52PM

            by cmdrklarg (5048) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 28 2019, @04:52PM (#808183)

            The point being that we would not need to clean the piss out of the pool if we didn't piss in it.

            --
            The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 27 2019, @12:11AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 27 2019, @12:11AM (#807363)

    And in other news... "don't eat yellow Snow".