How modelling articulates the science of climate change
From paper and pencil to the world’s fastest computers
Editor’s note: This article is the second in a series of climate briefs. To read the others, and more of our climate coverage, visit our hub at economist.com/climatechange
TO IMAGINE EARTH without greenhouse gases in its atmosphere is to turn the familiar blue marble into a barren lump of rock and ice on which the average surface temperature hovers around -18ºC. Such a planet would not receive less of the sunlight which is the ultimate source of all Earth’s warmth. But when the energy it absorbed from the sunlight was re-emitted as infrared radiation, as the laws of physics require, it would head unimpeded back out into space.
This article appeared in the Schools brief section of the print edition under the headline “Model behaviour”
From the April 30th 2020 edition
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