tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4079934161985715000.post8102726292073969930..comments2023-07-23T17:04:05.956+02:00Comments on The frog that jumped out: What's missing from the latest IPCC report?Ugo Bardihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18231859786466899924noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4079934161985715000.post-41729340628056918702013-10-02T14:41:37.054+02:002013-10-02T14:41:37.054+02:00There is not much else to comment other than what ...There is not much else to comment other than what the article itself clearly states:<br /><br />But if we trigger the feedbacks, the whole thing goes runaway.<br />The feedbacks are natural sources of warming that we activate by raising the average global temperature just one or two Celsius degrees. There are three main ones.<br /><br />1. As the highly reflective ice and snow that covers most of the polar regions melts, the rate at which the sun’s heat is absorbed goes up steeply over a large part of the planet. We are creating a new warming engine that we can’t turn off.<br /><br />2. The polar warming melts the frozen ground and coastal seabed (permafrost) in the Arctic, which then release massive quantities of methane that causes further warming.<br /><br />3. And the oceans, as they warm, release some of the vast quantities of carbon dioxide they absorbed in the past, simply because warmer water can contain less dissolved gas.<br /><br />Those are the killer feedbacks. At least five times in the past 500 million years, the planet has lurched suddenly into a climate five to six Celsius degrees higher than now, and in every case these feedbacks are the prime suspects.<br /><br />We don’t need to build the gun that kills us. We just have to pull the trigger. And we are playing<br />with the trigger now."<br /><br />To which I would only add: So let's just keep playing and see what happens? Or perhaps something "slightly more precautionary and sensible"? <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> Max12345https://www.blogger.com/profile/12365889922647112795noreply@blogger.com