Arctic amplification: How the albedo effect speeds up global warming | Jon Gertner

Give yourself the gift of knowledge — subscribe to Big Think Edge: http://bit.ly/bigthinkedge The more Greenland melts, the more Greenland melts. Here's why. - The Arctic is currently warming about twice as fast as the rest of the world. - Ice is white and bright and is able to reflect solar energy back into space. When it melts and exposes dark, open ocean, that open ocean absorbs more sunlight and more energy. This creates a kind of feedback loop. - The darkness absorbs more solar energy — more sunlight. In turn, this accelerates the melt of the ice. Jon Gertner is a journalist and historian whose stories on science, technology, and nature have appeared in a host of national magazines. Since 2003 he has worked mainly as a feature writer for the New York Times Magazine. His first book, "The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation", was a New York Times bestseller. His latest is "The Ice at the End of the World: An Epic Journey into Greenland's Buried Past and Our Perilous Future" https://amzn.to/2L917gH If you're interested in licensing this or any other Big Think clip for commercial or private use, contact our licensing partner Executive Interviews: https://ift.tt/2IQF1gR Follow Big Think here: YouTube: http://goo.gl/CPTsV5 Facebook: https://ift.tt/1qJMX5g Twitter: https://twitter.com/bigthink