Natural Cycling vs. Climate Change

This is an essential question that will be returned to continually in climate research. One essential key is the rate of change when considering anthropogenic change and natural change. NOAA has been studying the global carbon cycle and this very question, this is what they've found:

"In the geological history of the Earth, carbon has been cycling among large reservoirs in the land (including plants and fossil fuels), oceans, and the atmosphere. This natural cycling of CO2 usually takes millions of years to move large amounts from one system to another. Now we are looking at these changes occurring in centuries or even decades.

Since the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen by 30 percent. This follows the increase in burning of fossil fuels that began with the rise of industry and transportation."

Read more here.

The Danger of Tipping Points

"There is alarming evidence that important tipping points, leading to irreversible changes in major ecosystems and the planetary climate system, may already have been reached or passed. Ecosystems as diverse as the Amazon rainforest and the Arctic tundra, for example, may be approaching thresholds of dramatic change through warming and drying. Mountain glaciers are in alarming retreat and the downstream effects of reduced water supply in the driest months will have repercussions that transcend generations. Climate feedback systems and environmental cumulative effects are building across Earth systems demonstrating behaviours we cannot anticipate."

-UNEP Climate Change Presentation - June 2009

I will be posting more about tipping points as I continue to delve into Storms of My Grandchildren and the science around climate tipping points.