What are albedo feedbacks?

Albedo feedbacks are like when a snowball gets bigger because it’s white and reflects more light.

Imagine you’re playing in the snow on a sunny day. Snow is white, and that means it reflects most of the sunlight, kind of like how a mirror reflects your face. When the sun shines down, the snow bounces the light back up, so it doesn’t get as warm. But when it gets warmer, some of the snow starts to melt and turns into darker water or dirt. Darker things absorb more sunlight, it’s like wearing a black shirt on a hot day instead of a white one. That makes it even warmer, which melts more snow, and so on, kind of like a snowball rolling downhill and getting bigger.

Think of Earth as having its own snowball effect. When there's lots of ice or snow, the planet reflects more sunlight, keeping it cool. But if that ice starts to melt because it’s warmer, the darker ground underneath absorbs more heat, like a black shirt on a hot day, which makes things even warmer.

This is how albedo feedbacks work: more snow = more reflection = cooler Earth; less snow = less reflection = warmer Earth. It's a little loop that can make changes in temperature go faster!