On Mon, 2010-02-01 at 11:21 -0800, Robert Indigo Ellison wrote: > There is a lot of evidence for abrupt climate change - by definition > change that is disproportionate to the forcing - a nonlinear response > that is a characteristic of complex systems.
Sure. But the vast majority of climate change doesn't seem to be abrupt. It is quite possible that the abrupt climate change we do see is due to abrupt forcing and/or unusual events, not internal variability. Younger Dryas period, for example, is very likely caused by the draining of a vast lake of fresh water on North America. This lake existed because of climate change, but there is nothing like this anywhere in the world today. While the broadest definition of the climate system would include it, our current climate system has no such feature. > I don't know what to say about the last glacial max. Models with fixed > ice sheets can't possibly be used for modelling glacial > conditions. Why not? Change the fixed ice sheets to match LGM conditions. -- Phil Hays <[email protected]> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Global Change ("globalchange") newsgroup. Global Change is a public, moderated venue for discussion of science, technology, economics and policy dimensions of global environmental change. Posts will be admitted to the list if and only if any moderator finds the submission to be constructive and/or interesting, on topic, and not gratuitously rude. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/globalchange
