Albedo and Climate Change

The New Jersey Institute of Technology has been measuring "earthshine" for a few years. They do this by measuring our affect on the moon's brightness. The jargon to use regarding reflectivity is albedo.

How they do the monitoring is interesting, if you like that sort of thing. They use earth based telescopes etc, which creates some need for care.

On the right is the graph they produced to show earthshine. The assumption under the study is that the shine is a factor of earth's cloud cover. Me, I would throw in sun variance as well, but no matter.

If you notice the graph from 1985 to 1997, you will see a drop in earthshine. What this means, as they say, is that more sunshine hit the earth. Currently, the trend is up, which is to say less sunlight is hitting the earth.

The researchers admit that much more thought is necessary to fully grasp all the ramifications of this information, but they did say it has to be factored into "global warming" analysis.

The correlation between earthshine and earth temperature for the period tracked to 1997 is strongly positive and, as many global warming zealots say, correlation is proof. I heard exactly this just today on the radio from some guy who has written a book on what the earth would be like if all humans vanished.

Scientists would disagree, understanding correlation does not imply causation: hoc ergo propter hoc.

Time will provide a better view of albedo and climate change, as well as many other brand-new research methods, but, of course, we don't have time as it is the end of the world, unless its not. If the correlation remains strong, if the earth's temperature is decreasing since 1998, that would be a strong indicator of a relationship which should be researched.