E-Book Overview
Climate Crash is an excellent book that shows that climate is far more unstable than conventional wisdom thought possible, with our planet's climate tending towards either very warm or very cold. The most recent 10,000 years, in which humans learned to grow their own food, has been one of unusual stability. This long stable climate has created a mindset that fools us into thinking climate cannot change very quickly in a lifetime. Using glacial ice cores and ocean sediment cores, paleo-climatologists have constructed a climate history that is anything but stable. I was expecting this book to have more on what global warming could do to society in the future, but most of the book is squarely set in the proven past. However, as historians like to say "past is prologue", which means that we can expect future climate to change rather quickly. Most likely, the change will be one of extreme warming because of the positive feedback cycles involved in a warmer world becoming warmer for a variety of reasons (melting ice caps expose more open ocean, which in turn heats up faster than ice caps). Not really a global warming book, but a great book on climate change in the past and what it might portend for climate change in the future.
E-Book Content
Zarathustra’s disciples present: John D. Cox Page 2 of 134 This page intentionally left blank. John D. Cox Page 3 of 134 CLIMATE CRASH Abrupt Climate Change and What It Means for our Future John D. Cox Joseph Henry Press Washington, D.C. John D. Cox Page 4 of 134 Joseph Henry Press 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 The Joseph Henry Press, an imprint of the National Academy Press, was created with the goal of making books on science, technology, and health more widely available to professionals and the public. Joseph Henry was one of the founders of the National Academy of Sciences and a leader in early American science. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this volume are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Academy of Sciences or its affiliated institutions. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Cox, John D. Climate crash : abrupt climate change and what it means for our future / By John D. Cox. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-309-09312-0 (cloth) 1. Paleoclimatology. 2. Climatic changes—Environmental aspects. I. Title. QC884.C69 2002 551.7′9—dc22 2005002387 Cover design by Michele de la Menardiere; photo © Paul Barton/ CORBIS. Copyright 2005 by John D. Cox. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. John D. Cox Page 5 of 134 To John and Margaret John D. Cox Page 6 of 134 CONTENTS Introduction……………………………………………………………………. 9 1. Eismitte………………………………………………………………………… 12 2. Younger Drvas………………………………………………………………… 19 3. Bedrock………………………………………………………………………… 29 4. Romancing the ice………………………………………………………….... 38 5. “Nine and Sixty Ways”……………………………………………………...... 49 6. Instabilities…………………………………………………………….….…… 61 7. Convergence………………………………………………………………….. 70 8. Moments of Truth…………………………………………………………….. 81 9. Sedimentations……………………………………………………………….. 92 10. Nonlinearities………………………………………………………………….. 102 11. Holocene………………………………………………………………………. 114 12. Surprises………………………………………………………………………. 123 Further Reading………………………………………………………………. 132 Acknowledgments…………………………………………………………….. 134 John D. Cox Page 7 of 134 This page is intentionally left blank