Kevin Edward Trenberth is a New Zealand-American climate scientist who worked in the Climate Analysis Section at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research. He was a lead author of the 1995, 2001
Trenberth in 2015
Trenberth (right), after his investiture as a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit by the governor-general, Dame Cindy Kiro, at Government House, Auckland, on 8 May 2024
The scientific community has been investigating the causes of current climate change for decades. After thousands of studies, the scientific consensus is that it is "unequivocal that human influence h
Air pollution has substantially increased the presence of aerosols in the atmosphere when compared to the preindustrial background levels. Different types of particles have different effects, but overall, cooling from aerosols formed by sulfur dioxide emissions has the overwhelming impact. However, the complexity of aerosol interactions in atmospheric layers makes the exact strength of cooling very difficult to estimate.
Human fingerprints for global warming (summary of observational evidence that human carbon dioxide emissions are causing the climate to warm).
Sea ice reflects 50% to 70% of incoming sunlight, while the ocean, being darker, reflects only 6%. As an area of sea ice melts and exposes more ocean, more heat is absorbed by the ocean, raising temperatures that melt still more ice. This is a positive feedback process.