386 Climate Management Issues
in sea-surface temperature. Lindzen said, “We wanted to see if the amount
of cirrus associated with a given unit of cumulus varied systematically
with changes in sea-surface temperature. The answer we found was, yes,
the amount of cirrus associated with a given unit of cumulus goes down
signicantly with increases in sea surface temperature in a cloudy region”
(Herring, 2002).
What they discovered was that the earth has a natural adaptive infrared
iris—a built-in check and balance mechanism that may be able to counter-
act climate change to some extent. The iris hypothesis suggests that, simi-
lar tothe way the iris in a human eye contracts to allow less light to pass
through the pupil under bright light, ...