4 ms·
[not an expert] What you say is mostly correct. Two things though I think are critical and under-appreciated in understanding climate change: 1) rate of change
by themgt 11y ago
[not an expert] What you say is mostly correct. Two things though I think are critical and under-appreciated in understanding climate change:
1) rate of change & sixth mass extinction - many natural systems can adapt to gradual change over the course of many millennia but cannot to the incredibly rapid change our planet is now undergoing. this leads to loss of ecosystems & biomass which help to regulate our climate/CO2 levels
2) positive feedback loops - many systems are also at risk of destabilizing feedback loops, e.g melting ice increasing solar radiation absorption, ice sheets whose disintegration will accelerate with rising and warming oceans warming them from frontally and from below and moulins turning them into swiss cheese, potential permafrost melting w/ massive methane outgassing, etc.
The combination of these effects mean this is not a simple "calories in/out" type calculation, but a complex system geared towards maintaining equilibrium, which as we rapidly push further and further out of that equilibrium will face rising risks of a highly nonlinear, rapid shift to a dramatically new equilibrium climate the likes of which our planet has not seen since well before the dawn of our species.