Dr. Kate Marvel – Why on Earth is NASA Studying Climate Change and Clouds?

Planet A - Talks on Climate Change

In the 5th episode of Planet A’s third season, Dan Jørgensen talks with Dr. Kate Marvel.

Dr. Marvel is a research scientist at Columbia University and works for NASA, studying how climate change affects our planet.

Her research has not only made her an eminent expert on the interplay between clouds and climate change, but also brought her international prominence for her TED Talk “Can clouds save us from climate change?”.

In the podcast, she explains how clouds both warms and cools the Earth, by either trapping heat or blocking sunlight. But in fact, climate change is also affecting the movement of clouds, pushing them from the tropics towards the North and South Pole.

Furthermore, Dr. Marvel explains about possibilities and perils of geoengineering. While generally skeptical about the use of geoengineering, to her the question of - who should decide what to do - is front and center.

She also argues that while science has confirmed patterns like warming of the Arctic, the existing climate models failed to predict the occurrence of other climate induced events.The latter point indicates that there are gaps in the scientific understanding of climate change and that its impact could be worse than anticipated.

However, she ends on a positive note arguing that climate science is gaining more prominent in the wider public debate about climate change. But even more importantly, she underlines that the science shows that we still can avert a disaster.

NB. Apologies for the background noise on the recording that is due to on-going construction work in Dr. Marvel’s building.