Environment

Vanishing Clouds Could Worsen Global Warming

By Ed Joyce / Reporter

Published July 23, 2009 at 11:15 AM PDT

This story was published more than 14 years ago.

A UC San Diego study shows evidence that changes in the Earth's cloud patterns could increase global warming.

It seems a simple question: Does a reduction in cloud cover increase the rate of global warming or slow it?

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The answer is complex.

Joel Norris from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and researchers from the University of Miami may have an answer.

Norris, a professor of atmospheric and climate science at Scripps, says the team used observational data collected over the last 50 years and complex climate models to show that changes in the clouds may enhance the warming of the planet.

"If these clouds dissipate then they will allow more solar radiation to reach the ground and exacerbate the warming produced by increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere," Norris says.

Norris says as low level stratus clouds - think of San Diego's marine layer - dissipate with ocean warming, it creates a vicious cycle potentially making global warming worse.

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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