Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to I disagree.

re: I disagree.
ER — (archived)

My whole point is not that the difference in temperature will be all that severe, but that the global heat engine will adapt itself to redistibute the heat differently than it does now. A slight change in global climate will lead to a major changes in regional weather patterns, and they will not necessarily lead to warmer weather. Some areas will actually get colder.

Right now, the overall change in temperature is very small, but the normal variation is increasing severely. Winters are colder and summers are hotter, or dryer/wetter. The averages may turn out to be about the same, but the noise in the signal, the extrema, will increase. Le Chatelier's principle is in effect, a system under stress will react to relieve that stress. And that reaction in complex feedback systems will often lead to short term instability.

This is my guess as to what will happen, because this is how complex sytems react under these circumstances, they reach a new equilibrium after a period of instability. I can't prove this will happen, hell I can't prove to your satisfaction that there is even global warming. But if there is, I can guarantee you it won't just be a question of a few degrees difference in temperature or a few more weeks of golf in Minnesota. The global weather machine is not linear, it's semi-chaotic.

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