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Waitbutwhy put it well: “ 18,000 years ago, global temperatures were about 5ºC lower than the 20th century average. That was enough to put Canada, Scandinavia,
by bemmu 5y ago
Waitbutwhy put it well: “ 18,000 years ago, global temperatures were about 5ºC lower than the 20th century average. That was enough to put Canada, Scandinavia, and half of England and the US under a half a mile of ice”
- adwn 5y agoThat's not really helpful, when you think about it: Are the effects linear? How much ice would the US be under for temperatures of 1°C below 20th century average? A fifth of half a mile? No ice at all? And what does that imply for 2°C above? 0.2 miles of ice below the surface? I prefer actual predictions of the effects, not bad analogies or useless data points.
- vermilingua 5y agoSure, it's unhelpful if you're trying to build a model or understand the science, but 90% of people aren't; and it's accurate –if unhelpful– analogies like this that get those people onboard.
- nerdponx 5y agoThe point is to show that the system is very sensitive, and that the folk wisdom of "2 C is just 2 C what's the big deal?" isn't valid.
- adwn 5y agoThen why not just explain to people the predicted consequences of a 2°C temperature increase?