Clouds influence the energy balance of Earth in many important ways. Clouds reflect sunlight, thus cooling Earth's surface. At the same time, clouds also trap heat coming up from Earth's surface, and they can warm and dry the atmosphere during rain or snow events. Whether a cloud leads to more cooling or warming depends on where it is, exactly what it looks like (heavy vs. wispy, dark vs. light, etc.), and even whether there are other clouds below it. Clouds are very complicated to predict, in part because the same processes of warming and cooling end up changing the overall amount of cloud. Thus, clouds are a topic of great discussion and research within the scientific community.

Radiative forcing is a measure of the influence a certain factor has in altering the balance of incoming and outgoing energy in the Earth-atmosphere system. Factors with positive values have a warming effect (more incoming energy than outgoing). Factors with negative values have a cooling effect (more outgoing energy than incoming). If the difference is zero, then the atmosphere is in equilibrium (neither warming nor cooling). The figure shows various factors in Earth's energy balance from human activities and natural processes. On balance, the sum of the factors from human activities lead to a positive radiative forcing, or a warming effect.

Snow and ice cover can be on the land surface (glaciers, ice sheets) or the sea (sea ice, ice shelves). They affect the regional and global climate due to their highly reflective nature, and thus, tend to cool Earth. One of the problems with the disappearance of snow and ice is that this tends to heat Earth's surface even more through what is known as a feedback (see Figure). Positive feedbacks enhance or amplify the warming trend, while negative feedbacks lead to cooling that counterbalances the warming trend. The retreat of glaciers and sea ice are examples of positive feedbacks--warmer air temperatures lead to more melting of glaciers or sea ice, which exposes darker colored surfaces that absorb more energy from the sun, which then warms the air near the surface further.

Living beings that reside in the land, sea, or air comprise the biosphere. The Biosphere, in turn, regulates the composition of the atmosphere. For example, the group of organisms known as autotrophs (e.g., plants, algae, and phytoplankton) makes their own food through photosynthesis--which directly removes carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the ocean and air. Autotrophs have a large impact on the amount of green house gas in the atmosphere. In the oceans, the process of these autotrophs dying and this biological material sinking into the deep ocean is an important way that carbon is effectively taken out of the climate system. Beyond this direct impact on atmospheric gases, organisms in the biosphere can impact the features of the land surface mentioned above. A forest exchanges energy with the atmosphere with a different signature than a field or a desert or a parking lot. Land cover change, which often involves manipulating the natural biosphere to serve the needs of man (be it agriculture or housing etc.), is also a driver of climate change.

Many aspects of the land surface--like elevation, proximity to the ocean, and forest cover--can affect local climate, but on a global scale land cover is most important because it can reflect or absorb the Sun's radiation. For example, land covered by snow reflects much of the sun's radiation back into space, resulting in a more cooling effect than a parking lot covered by asphalt, which absorbs radiation and warms the area around it. As with the ocean, land surface directly contributes to the heating or cooling of the atmosphere, and can drive atmospheric circulations through differences in pressure and temperature. In addition, factors like soil moisture and vegetation cover can play a big role in climate, affecting of the amount of water released into the atmosphere (evapotranspiration), which is an important part of Earth's energy balance (called latent heat exchange).

Oceans cover more than 70 percent of Earth's surface. Because of its vast size, the ocean plays a very important role in climate. For example, oceans are the principal source of water vapor in the atmosphere, which is a greenhouse gas that amplifies warming. Also, oceans regulate the amount of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere through the carbonate cycle, photosynthesis, and sedimentation (see Carbon Cycle figure). The ocean also absorbs much of the Sun's radiation and influences major atmospheric circulations responsible for precipitation and temperature. The ocean stores an enormous quantity of heat and transfers it through major oceanic circulations, and these, in turn, affect the climatic conditions of much of Earth. Major activities like El Nino and Monsoons are all, in part, caused and controlled by the temperature of the ocean.