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ljgeoffFrom the Arctic Ice Blog:
"No one can predict the future, especially when data about the present is so fragmented and incomplete. But we have one data point that cannot be denied nor overlooked: the planet is very old and has been relatively stable for billions of years, in spite of some extraordinary shocks. I believe the engineering jargon for this condition is "robust". The surface configuration and conditions may change over time, but there do seem to be mechanisms that tend to push it back into equilibrium. Runaway excursions don't seem to happen, but there do seem to be long range cycles, and we seem to have initiated the latest, and it may be severe.
The safest bet to make is that we have messed with the climate, and there is a possibility that our agriculture will be affected as a result, and along with it our industry and population distribution. The tertiary effects will be conflict, civil strife, economic distress, famine, waves of refugees, perhaps war. We may already be seeing the first of these changes manifesting themselves. The changes have been slow up to now, but they will probably speed up in the near future, and become more severe. How severe yet remains to be seen, and the time scale is not clear.
All we know is that the situation is not necessarily catastrophic. Even if it can't be reversed, or even stopped, perhaps it can be mitigated, and it stands to reason that the sooner we start the better." -- Elisee Reclus
I believe that the trick will be surviving those tertiary effects.
"No one can predict the future, especially when data about the present is so fragmented and incomplete. But we have one data point that cannot be denied nor overlooked: the planet is very old and has been relatively stable for billions of years, in spite of some extraordinary shocks. I believe the engineering jargon for this condition is "robust". The surface configuration and conditions may change over time, but there do seem to be mechanisms that tend to push it back into equilibrium. Runaway excursions don't seem to happen, but there do seem to be long range cycles, and we seem to have initiated the latest, and it may be severe.
The safest bet to make is that we have messed with the climate, and there is a possibility that our agriculture will be affected as a result, and along with it our industry and population distribution. The tertiary effects will be conflict, civil strife, economic distress, famine, waves of refugees, perhaps war. We may already be seeing the first of these changes manifesting themselves. The changes have been slow up to now, but they will probably speed up in the near future, and become more severe. How severe yet remains to be seen, and the time scale is not clear.
All we know is that the situation is not necessarily catastrophic. Even if it can't be reversed, or even stopped, perhaps it can be mitigated, and it stands to reason that the sooner we start the better." -- Elisee Reclus
I believe that the trick will be surviving those tertiary effects.