Abrupt Climate Change Quotes

“Major shifts in Earth’s climate are the norm, not the exception, in the Quaternary, which includes dozens of glacial to interglacial transitions. Earth was also significantly warmer during the Eemian, the last interglacial interval before the Holocene, which ended about 115,000 years ago. The relatively stable and moderate interglacial temperatures of the Holocene therefore stand out as an island of climate stability within a sea of extremes. If Earth’s climate system were to leave this relatively stable state, there is every reason to believe that the consequences might be catastrophic both to human societies and to non-human life as we know it. No industrial or even agricultural society has ever experienced climate shifts like those common before the Holocene. And greenhouse gas emissions and climate change are far from the only Earth system alterations that have accelerated since the 1950s.”
― Erle C. Ellis, Anthropocene: A Very Short Introduction

“The palaeo-record shows that in the Earth System abrupt changes and surprises are a common feature, and that environmental extremes beyond those recorded during the period of instrumental record occur frequently. Especially large risks to the Earth System are associated with the ‘threshold-abrupt change’ behaviour that arises when a well-buffered system is forced beyond a certain limit. Until the time that the threshold is approached, it appears that the system is unresponsive to the forcing function. However, when the threshold is passed, the system can move to another state very quickly, a state that may prove to be difficult to reverse or may even be irreversible. Changes of this nature are especially dangerous in the context of global change. Societies can have little or no warning that a forcing factor is approaching such a threshold, and by the time that the change in Earth System functioning is observed, it will likely be too late to avert the major change.”
― Will Steffen, Global Change and the Earth System: A Planet Under Pressure: Executive Summary