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False claim 'albedo effect' proves global warming is engineered | Fact check

Isabella Fertel, USA TODAY
·5 min read

The claim: 'Albedo effect' proves synthetic cover over Earth is causing global warming

An April 17 Instagram post (direct link, archived link) shows a video of a plane flying through a cloudy sky and leaving behind condensation trails.

“The shadow of the aerosol trail being dispersed by the Geoengineering SAI aircraft/drone that is seen cast on the artificial synthetic reflective greenhouse above it, is due to the albedo effect,” reads part of the post's caption. "What this means is that, a synthetic cover over a region is created."

The post goes on to claim that this synthetic cover, not human activity, is causing global warming.

The post garnered more than 2,000 likes in one month.

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Our rating: False

Scientists say the post is inaccurate on several levels. The existence of the albedo effect does not prove a "synthetic cover" has been placed around the Earth, according to experts. The post also references solar geoengineering, but researchers say those technologies are still being developed, and no large-scale experiments or operations have been conducted. Scientists have discovered ample evidence that climate change is driven by human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels.

Post mischaracterizes albedo effect

The post refers to the concept of albedo, which is a measure of the amount of light that a surface reflects. The more reflective a surface is, the higher the surface’s albedo.

But the post fundamentally misrepresents how the Earth’s albedo relates to global warming, according to David Fahey, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Chemical Sciences Laboratory.

“Albedo is a real effect. Every planet has albedo,” Fahey said. “It has a role in global warming because the albedo of the planet determines how much sunlight is reflected back to space."

Ice and snow are extremely reflective. As the Earth warms and sea ice melt increases, the Earth’s albedo decreases and less sunlight is reflected back out into space – warming the planet even more in a phenomenon called ice-albedo feedback.

The fact that the Earth has an albedo doesn’t prove that global warming is artificially engineered, or that a “synthetic cover” has been placed over parts of the atmosphere, Fahey said.

Furthermore, the post's assertion that solar ultraviolet and infrared light are trapped by an "artificial synthetic reflective" cover "cannot be explained using well-known physical and radiative processes that control how the spectrum of solar radiation interacts with air, aerosol, clouds and Earth's surface," Fahey said.

The albedo effect is also not what causes airplane condensation trails to form as the post posits, according to Joshua Horton, the former research director for geoengineering at the Harvard Kennedy School.

“Contrails are caused by ice crystals forming when water vapor in aircraft engine exhaust freezes at high altitude,” he told USA TODAY in an email.

Fahey agreed, saying that while albedo does not create condensation trails, condensation trails – like other clouds – alter the Earth’s albedo by reflecting sunlight.

Fact check: False claim geoengineering is behind climate change

The post also mentions geoengineering, a term that refers to a number of emerging climate intervention technologies that could manipulate the atmosphere to mitigate the effects of climate change.

The aim of solar geoengineering, one of the two broad categories of climate intervention technology being researched, is to modify the amount of solar radiation absorbed and released by the Earth’s atmosphere.

"The idea is that dispersing aerosols – tiny particles – at high altitude would reflect a small fraction of incoming sunlight back to space and cool the planet, offsetting some global warming," Horton previously told USA TODAY.

But the technology is still being developed and studied, according to Horton and Alan Robock, a climate science professor at Rutgers University. Both scientists explained that much of the technology necessary to make it work does not yet exist, and neither was aware of any significant experiments or operations using geoengineering technology.

Furthermore, the aim of the technology is to increase the Earth’s albedo and the amount of sunlight being reflected away from the Earth to cool the planet and offset global warming – not to increase global warming as the post claims – Horton said.

Global warming driven by greenhouse gas emissions

The Instagram post claims that global warming is “temporary” and that “the effects of a ‘climate crisis’ are intentionally being facilitated” using geoengineering technologies.

However, Fahey previously told USA TODAY that climate change is not the product of geoengineering technologies.

“The variables that we associate with climate change like global temperatures have been changing for decades,” Fahey said. “If one really thought there was a cause and effect there, one would have to say that geoengineering was going on for decades. The reasoning and logic isn't there.”

Fact check: Geoengineering technology not yet in use, despite posts to the contrary

Scientists have ample and “unequivocal” evidence that modern climate change is driven by greenhouse gases emitted from human activities, particularly the burning of fossil fuels, according to NASA.

Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane trap heat in the atmosphere, resulting in rising global surface temperatures. As a result, the average global temperature has increased by nearly 2 degrees since 1880.

USA TODAY reached out to the Instagram user who shared the post for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Viral climate post mischaracterizes 'albedo effect' | Fact checking