The Kiwis Tell Us the Sky is Falling

Photo Credit: NASA Earth Observatory

Chicken Little, you’re finally right. The sky is starting to fall.

Well, not really. It’s just that average cloud height has decreased by 1 per cent over the last decade – that’s about 30-40 metres. How? Scientists at the University of Auckland in New Zealand analyzed cloud height data gleaned over the last decade from the Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) on NASA’s Terra spacecraft. Their findings revealed that fewer clouds appear to be occurring at very high altitudes now.

Lead researcher Roger Davis comments, “This is the first time we have been able to accurately measure changes in global cloud height and, while the record is too short to be definitive, it provides just a hint that something quite important might be going on.”

Cloud height has notoriously been one of the most difficult things for meteorologists to pin down and this accurate measurement is pretty much a big deal in the community.

The fact that there’s a trend is an even bigger deal. Though he said that the study was too short to really draw any conclusions, whispers of a “negative feedback” mechanism to counteract global warming are being discussed.

While they’re not sure why the clouds are lowering, the speculation is that it’s due to some sort of change in the circulation patterns that creates the clouds at high altitude.

And so it would seem that the Earth begins to fix itself against the damage the parasite called Human has done to it.

It kind of reminds me of the History Channel’s “Life After People” – will all evidence of our civilisation disappear, leaving only the mineral parts that we are made of? Will the Earth simply fix itself when we are gone?

Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. I mean, they’re only 1% lower right?

[Via Science Daily and The University of Auckland]