Radiative Forcing
I’ve been following Leon Simmons, a self-taught climate scientist from the Netherlands, on Twitter to learn more about climate science. He mentioned that climate scientists may have been “talking about climate change the wrong way” because they didn’t highlight a phenomena called ‘radiative forcing.’
MIT describes radiative forcing as: “Radiative forcing is what happens when the amount of energy that enters the Earth’s atmosphere is different from the amount of energy that leaves it. Energy travels in the form of radiation: solar radiation entering the atmosphere from the sun, and infrared radiation exiting as heat. If more radiation is entering Earth than leaving—as is happening today—then the atmosphere will warm up. This is called radiative forcing because the difference in energy can force changes in the Earth’s climate.”
Radiative forcing takes into account greenhouse gases along with clouds, ice & the albedo effect, sea surface temperatures, aerosols, land use and other forces that can either warm or cool the planet.
More Reading
Future learn, Causes of Climate Change: The Radiative Forcing Concept
NOAA, Climate Forcing