Current research has shown that climate models are overestimating the effects of clouds on the cooling of the earth. If this research checks out, this will put a lot more pressure on politicians and regulators because warming will occur even faster. The article discusses how the clouds affect warming is based off of the mixture of water and ice in clouds. Data from a satellite shows that clouds have more water than ice and this causes a faster rate of warming. The reason this causes more warming is because as less and less ice is in clouds, there will be less capacity for the water to form. Water reflects sunlight back into the atmosphere causing warming to be slowed, so having less water in the clouds makes the earth warm faster. Recent studies that prompted this research have shown that climate models are incorrectly assessing the ratio of water to ice in clouds. The new research suggests that this incorrect cloud assessment could lead to an additional 1.3 degrees celsius of warming. Some climate change professionals say that the 1.3 degree change has to be taken with a grain of salt because no one knows the exact affect. It should be interesting to see what further research says and what noticeable changes happen in the next few decades.

Schwartz, John. “Climate Models May Overstate Clouds’ Cooling Power, Research Says.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 2016. Web. 24 Apr. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/08/science/climate-models-may-overstate-clouds-cooling-power-research-says.html?_r=0>.