On Jan 29, 5:39 am, Robert Indigo Ellison
<[email protected]> wrote:
> 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.
By definition, abrupt climate change will happen without warning.
Cheers, Alastair.
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