FACT CHECK: Does albedo effect prove that global warming is engineered? 

An Instagram post has claimed that the albedo effect is responsible for global warming. 

The social media video shows an airplane flying through cloudy weather and leaving behind white lines known as contrails.

A part of the long caption reads: “The shadow of the aerosol trail being dispersed by the Geoengineering SAI aircraft/drone that is seen cast on the artificial synthetic reflective greenhouse above it, is due to the albedo effect.”

The post further goes on to claim that “temporary global warming is being engineered”, adding that the climate crisis is “intentionally being facilitated for numerous agendas”. 

“Just remember, the crisis is manufactured and engineered,” the post claimed.

The Instagram video was posted on April 17, and it had over 42, 183 likes at the time of this report. 

WHAT IS THE ALBEDO EFFECT?

Albedo is the ratio of light received by a body to the light reflected by the same body. The albedo effect is basically the ability of a surface to reflect sunlight. Light-coloured surfaces  (high albedo) reflect more sunlight than dark-coloured surfaces (low albedo).  

The albedo effect explains why the interior of a black car parked in the sun will be hotter compared to a white car parked side by side. While the black vehicle absorbs the bulk of the heat energy from sunlight, the white car, on the contrary, reflects it. 

HOW DOES ALBEDO EFFECT AFFECT CLIMATE?

Albedo has a natural effect on global warming. The albedo of the planet essentially determines how much sunlight is reflected back to space.

The increase in the earth’s temperature leads to the speedy melting of sea ice, as a result, decreases the albedo of the earth, such that less sunlight is reflected into space. Consequently, leading to more warming of the planet through a process known as ice-albedo feedback.

ALBEDO IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR CONTRAILS

There is no scientific evidence to buttress the claim that since the earth has an albedo, then global warming is artificially engineered.

Also, the albedo effect is not responsible for the white lines  – known as contrails – left in the sky by airplanes. Contrails are formed when water vapour and fine soot particles from burning jet fuel freeze into ice crystals at high altitudes. However, contrails alter the earth’s albedo by reflecting sunlight. 

CLIMATE CHANGE IS NOT THE PRODUCT OF GEOENGINEERING 

The Instagram post also claimed that “temporary global warming is being engineered”. 

Gloria Okafor, a climate expert had told TheCable that geoengineering as a climate intervention “is still undergoing a lot of research”. She added that it is baseless to say that geoengineering – which seeks to reduce emissions and the impact of climate change – is the causative factor of climate change.

Also, the factors responsible for the increase in global temperature have been ongoing for several decades, considering that geoengineering is a recent area of study with unconcluded assertions, how then can unconcluded scientific research be viewed as the cause of climate change? 

VERDICT

The claim is misleading. 

There is no scientific explanation that the albedo effect provides a synthetic cover over the earth, which might be responsible for global warming. Also, studies on geoengineering are yet to be concluded, and can’t be related to climate change which is largely driven by human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels.

This fact check was produced by TheCable with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck, International Fact-Checking Network, and African Fact Checking Alliance network.