General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Rec this thread if you think the crazy weather of recent times is due to human-caused climate change [View all]BelgianMadCow
(5,379 posts)I can see the benefits but I don't like it.
Anyway, as to climate change: not only is it real (of course), I think it went into the "nonlinear" part of the process, where positive feedback loops start occuring. Like now Sandy, the reason she turned west is because of the low pressure over the mainland, but ALSO because an "anomalous troposheric ridge", in other words an unusal high pressure zone over the arctic kept Sandy from proceeding north. It was also an abnormally strong arctic high-pressure zone that brought the EU a lifethreatening winter period last year, with people starving outside and gas getting scarce. And that pressure zone is stronger because the arctic heats up, due to polar ice loss.
We have no idea what we are heading into - that's what non-linearity means.