{"id":100109,"date":"2019-07-03T16:00:06","date_gmt":"2019-07-03T14:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/2019\/07\/03\/on-reflection-how-the-albedo-effect-is-melting-the-antarctic\/"},"modified":"2019-07-03T16:00:06","modified_gmt":"2019-07-03T14:00:06","slug":"on-reflection-how-the-albedo-effect-is-melting-the-antarctic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/?p=100109","title":{"rendered":"On reflection: how the &#039;albedo effect&#039; is melting the Antarctic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This environmental phenomenon is a vicious feedback loop \u2013 but would painting our roofs white help?This week we learned that there has been a \u201cprecipitous\u201d fall in Antarctic sea ice since 2014. That won\u2019t increase sea levels, but it\u2019s still bad because white ice reflects more of the sun\u2019s heat back away from Earth than dark water. As the ice melts, more heat will be absorbed, which will melt more ice. This vicious feedback is known as the \u201calbedo effect\u201d.The term comes from the Latin albus, meaning white, from which we also get \u201calbino\u201d and \u201calbum\u201d (which in ancient Rome could mean a blank tablet). In English it is first recorded, meaning \u201cpure whiteness\u201d, in a letter by the astronomer royal John Flamsteed, complaining about Isaac Newton\u2019s Optics: \u201cHe calls the colour of that representation of the sun which is made by the collection of his rays \u2026 whiteness \u2026 but \u2019tis far from albedo.\u201d Continue reading&#8230;<br \/>\nVia: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/books\/2019\/jul\/03\/on-reflection-albedo-effect-word-of-the-week\" target=\"_blank\">On reflection: how the &#039;albedo effect&#039; is melting the Antarctic<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This environmental phenomenon is a vicious feedback loop \u2013 but would painting our roofs white help?This week we learned that there has been a \u201cprecipitous\u201d fall in Antarctic sea ice since 2014. That won\u2019t increase sea levels, but it\u2019s still bad because white ice reflects more of the sun\u2019s heat [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=100109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100109\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=100109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=100109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theworldwidejournal.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=100109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}