For hundreds of years, human civilization has been changing the surface of the land through deforestation, desertification, and agriculture. Forests, grasslands, wetlands, and other natural ecosystems have been replaced with cropland. With the exception of the recent loss of ice sheets and glaciers, these land cover changes have led to increases in surface albedo. Albedo is the property of the surface of the Earth to reflect or absorb solar radiation (See NASA’s This World Is Black and White video below which describes the concept of albedo).