India, Dec. 30 -- Scientists are observing a steady global decline in Earth's most reflective cloud cover

Fewer clouds mean more heat trapped, intensifying climate change without dramatic headlines

The loss is subtle but profound, reshaping rainfall, temperature and human perception

Relearning how to read clouds could be a powerful civic response to atmospheric change

As a scholar researching clouds, I have spent much of my time trying to understand the economy of the sky. Not the weather reports showing scudding rainclouds, but the deeper logic of cloud movements, their distributions and densities and the way they intervene in light, regulate temperatures and choreograph heat flows across our restless planet.

Recently, I have been n...