Name: What If All The Clouds Disappeared Forever?
Uploaded: 2021-03-01T18:15:36.000Z
Duration: 4 min 4 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

clouds cover about 70% of the planet at any given moment.

That instant might shock onlooking astronauts

But someone who is, say, hiking in the desert

wouldn't know right away that things on Earth

the first warning sign would show up: humidity.

It'll be even worse if you live by the coast.

Normally, the sun's heat evaporates water,

and that water vapor is condensed into clouds.

But if clouds are cut out of the Earth's water cycle,

you might experience more turbulence than usual.

But a bad flight may be the least of our worries,

to replenish the water sources we drink from,

like lakes, streams, rivers, springs, and aquifers.

we're stuck with whatever water we have on hand.

we would drain all of the freshwater lakes and rivers

about 80 to 100 gallons of water every day.

But saving ourselves is going to take more

than just skipping long showers and laundry.

The water we use in our home and public places

accounts for only 21% of our water usage.

thermoelectric power to generate electricity

Not only do power plants use tons of water,

ones that run on nuclear fuel could spell disaster

The 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, for example,

was set off when an earthquake knocked out power

And farms are going to need even more water

tons of wild vegetation and animals as the land dries up.

eroding soil may kick up giant dust storms

Meanwhile, Earth's climate will be going haywire

It's hard to say when this will all happen

without some very expensive climate modeling,

did offer some quick back-of-the-envelope calculations.

Without clouds, average surface temperatures

would rise by as much as 22 degrees Celsius.

would not only destroy the habitats of most flora and fauna,

killing off whatever survived the drought,

and cause massive flooding of coastal cities.

You might end up being part of the 40% of the world

and your new home might soon be in an endless desert

Sounds alarming, but there are some silver linings

No more devastating hurricanes and tornadoes,

or delayed flights because of stormy weather,

We could invent ways to desalinate ocean water

or collect all that water vapor from the air.

because in reality, we're already losing clouds.

it might be best to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions

and try to avoid this scary new world entirely.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

What If All The Clouds Disappeared Forever?

permanent

devastating

average

extreme