[Physics Today]: The Discovery of Rapid Climate Change
How fast can our planet’s climate change? … [C]ommon sense held that such transformations could only creep in over tens of thousands of years…. Today, there is evidence that severe change can take less than a decade….
Can society respond and adapt that quickly? (The Bay Area’s been waiting since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake for the Bay Bridge to be replaced. And we’ve all been watching the staggering ineptitude of federal, state AND local government response to Hurricane Katrina. )
In an area as difficult as climate science, in which all is complex and befogged, it takes a while to see what one is not prepared to look for.
