[GPSCC-chat] AAAS: Climate change may trigger 'abrupt' world-wide consequences

[Spencer Graves]

Hello, All:


       A new report by the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science (AAAS) warns that, "Climate change may trigger 'abrupt' 
world-wide consequences" 
(http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/3/18/report-climate-changemaytriggerabruptworldwideconsequences.html). 



       This has been known since 1961, when Edward Lorenz found that 
minor differences in starting conditions to his (nonlinear) weather 
simulations produced huge differences in the results.  This began the 
popularization of "chaos theory" (Wikipedia, "Chaos theory"). Further 
work in this area in the 1960s and 1970s became known as "catastrophe 
theory" where, "Small changes in certain parameters of a nonlinear 
system can cause equilibria to appear or disappear, or to change from 
attracting to repelling and vice versa, leading to large and sudden 
changes of the behaviour" (Wikipedia, "Catastrophe theory").


       This is important, because the prestige of AAAS should help 
marginalize the climate change deniers.


       Best Wishes,
       Spencer


p.s.  Might someone have time to skim the full AAAS report?  If yes, I'd 
like to know if it mentions "chaos theory" or "catastrophe theory".  I 
believe it should be cited in relevant Wikipedia articles.  I don't have 
time at the moment to do that research, but I could help someone else 
with the knowledge to make appropriate changes to Wikipedia.


-- 
Spencer Graves, PE, PhD
President and Chief Technology Officer
Structure Inspection and Monitoring, Inc.
751 Emerson Ct.
San José, CA 95126
ph:  408-655-4567
web:  www.structuremonitoring.com