A positive feedback loop

Post date: Jun 11, 2016 7:40:20 PM

A positive feedback loop occurs when a small change leads to an even larger change of the same type. For example, a modest amount of warming melts ice in northern climates. But the bare ground absorbs three times as much heat as ground covered by snow or ice, so the change amplifies the original warming. Even more ice melts, more heat is absorbed, and the spiral grows.

-- Nicholas Kristof, New York Times columnist