Climate Change and the Butterfly Effect
“ And the way that I look at a lot of climate change things is, at a certain point, you have nice, friendly oscillations in the weather cycle, globally. And, at a certain point, the string on your pendulum breaks and things go flying off. Or another way to think of it is, things are pretty steady state, up until the point when you tip the system such that your state slides down .” Dr. Pamela Gay (January 10, 2017, Ep. 435: The Butterfly Effect , Astronomy Cast.) If we understood Climate Change properly, we would appreciate that the time for emergency measures for protecting our infrastructures is now, if not sooner. The Butterfly Effect relates to Climate Change, resulting from the dramatic increase in greenhouse gas emissions starting with the industrial revolutions around 200 years ago, and having already led to many local consequences . Temperature increases and ocean acidification have already begun a chain of effects, some perhaps unstoppable. One of the local consequences is...