MRussell

"The planet [Earth] is heading for climate free fall.. Earth will experience an increasingly erratic climate: more and stronger fluctuations in flows of melt water, ocean circulations and the extent of sea ice. These changes will lead to more frequent and intense extremes in temperature, precipitation and storms — leading not only to more heatwaves and droughts, but also to more cold spells and floods.. Once a critical temperature threshold for instability is crossed, it takes time for such systems to collapse, but the collapse is inevitable.. Modern economies are adapted to relatively stable climatic baselines. Agricultural productivity, infrastructure design, insurance pricing and financial risk management all rely not only on expected mean conditions but also on the predictability of variability.. once these factors are no longer predictable, all bets are off — life becomes uninsurable and the world becomes unsafe. Communities are already feeling the effects of a rise in extreme weather. And such events might quickly spiral once climate subsystems start to tumble.. If you push the climate system past a tipping point, it does not stabilize. Its parts will tumble like falling pieces of china, even if the cabinet they are in hasn’t toppled yet." This issue is urgent, isn't it? '‘Climate free fall’: why the biggest risk to our economies is yet to be recognized' nature.com/articles/d41586-0…