WASHINGTON (AP) – A new discovery about how clouds form may scale back some of the more dire predictions about temperature increases caused by man-made global warming.
That’s because it implies that a key assumption for making such predictions is a bit off.
“What this will do is slightly reduce and sharpen the projections for temperature during the 21st century,” said researcher Jasper Kirkby.
Nonetheless, he added, “We are definitely warming the planet.”
Kirby works at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN. He is the lead author of one of three studies on the topic released Wednesday by the journals Nature and Science.