Abstract
If the 21st century is punctuated and black swan events are becoming more frequent and larger due to a highly connected world, then what is the worst thing that can happen? Might it all end with an Xtreme big bang? Or, will the end come as a slow death due to climate change or mismanagement of global resources? It seems that humans are capable of recovering from almost anything, except for human nature. In this chapter I examine in careful detail the evidence—pro and con—for global climate change. The evidence is undeniable, even as many policy-makers choose to deny it. The temperature of the earth is rising in concert with greenhouse gases. But, the measurements are messy—nonlinear and chaotic—which brings them into question by naysayers. Don’t be fooled by complexity—natural disasters will continue to increase in severity and frequency as the weather is influenced by human activity. The most extreme events lie ahead of us.
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Notes
- 1.
Climatologists use Celsius instead of Fahrenheit to measure temperature. 4 °C is 39 °F. Water freezes at 0 °C, which is the same as 32 °F.
- 2.
Singer et al. (2005).
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
National Academies Press (2008).
- 6.
Heat = σT4, where σ is Stefan’s constant, 5.67 × 10−8, and T is temperature measured in K.
- 7.
- 8.
- 9.
Zhen-Shan and Xian (2007).
- 10.
- 11.
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Hansen et al. (2012a).
- 13.
Hansen et al. (2012b).
- 14.
Green’s functions are used in physics and statistics. They are various types of correlation functions such as the correlation between global temperature and GHG.
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Nature has absorbed 55 % of all GHG: plants absorbed 2/3, while oceans absorbed the remaining 1/3.
- 16.
Gregory and Foster (2008).
- 17.
Rebecca Lindsey (August 3, 2010).
- 18.
Waymer, Jim (2010).
- 19.
Carr, John (1891).
- 20.
ARkStorm is a play on words: AR means atmospheric river; k means 1000, and Storm conjures up Noah’s Ark and the Biblical flood.
- 21.
References
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Lewis, T.G. (2014). Xtremes. In: Book of Extremes. Copernicus, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06926-5_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06926-5_7
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