An article has been posted at - www.earthandocean.robertellison.com.au
‘Researchers first became intrigued by abrupt climate change when they
discovered striking evidence of large, abrupt, and widespread changes
preserved in paleoclimatic archives. Interpretation of such proxy
records of climate - for example, using tree rings to judge occurrence
of droughts or gas bubbles in ice cores to study the atmosphere at the
time the bubbles were trapped - is a well-established science that has
grown much in recent years. This chapter summarizes techniques for
studying paleoclimate and highlights research results. The chapter
concludes with examples of modern climate change and techniques for
observing it. Modern climate records include abrupt changes that are
smaller and briefer than in paleoclimate records but show that abrupt
climate change is not restricted to the distant past.’
US National Academy of Science (2002), Committee on Abrupt Climate
Changes, Abrupt Climate Change: Inevitable Surprises NAP – p19
Abrupt climate change, and its theoretical underpinning in complex
systems theory, are not new ideas but are not ones that have permeated
the zeitgeist deeply. Somewhat like Einstein’s Special Theory of
Relativity – it is counterintuitive and demands nothing less than a
complete overturning of the way we think. Judging by the continued
dominance of the arrow of time concept in public expressions –
Einstein’s thoughts about space and time has likewise not permeated
deep into the zeitgeist in 100+ years. A complex systems metatheory
of climate is not incremental knowledge. It doesn’t add to the pool
of knowledge about climate. Rather, it reveals fundamental properties
of climate that completely invalidate conventional thinking. It is
somewhat more important than relativity theory, given the short and
medium term implications for human societies, that the dynamical and
complex systems metatheory of climate is understood more widely and an
abrupt paradigm shift occur in climate science.
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