
Ice loss causing Arctic to reflect less heat - headalgorithm
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-50381328
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genidoi
Which leads to more light-absorbing ocean being exposed, raising ocean
temperatures. Then microscopic phytoplankton, nature's primary co2 -> oxygen
converters die out further raising co2 levels, eventually leading light-
reflecting upper atmospheric clouds to form with progressively lower surface
areas.

Climate change is going to be a hell of a way to put "feedback loops" in the
global cultural dictionary.

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ocschwar
Really? I'd expect the water in the Arctic to still over around 32F and for
the phytoplankton to be blooming.

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genidoi
Cold Arctic water currents cool equatorial water, so when those currents are
warmer equatorial water becomes too hot.

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neffy
This isn't news...the albedo effect and its implications are long understood.

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tzs
The news is not the albedo effect and its implications. The news is that the
researchers determined which of four factors that were thought to contribute
to reduced albedo were actually doing so and which were not.

In particular, as noted in the article:

> Within the scientific community, there had been a considerable level of
> debate over the role of soot blowing up from urban areas to the Arctic. One
> view was that it played a significant role in the reduction of the albedo
> effect in the Arctic because the dark soot would absorb more sunlight, thus
> increasing warming.

The researchers determined that this soot only had a minimal effect.

Of the factors that did affect albedo,

> They found that sea-ice, snow on top of sea-ice and ice on land contributed
> equally to the region's albedo effect

