Ice Core Reveals How Quickly Climate Can Change [News]
Monday, June 23, 2008 - 05:21
in Earth & Climate
Roughly 14,700 years ago the weather patterns that bring snow to Greenland shifted from one year to the next--a pattern of abrupt change that was repeated 12,900 years ago and 11,700 years ago when the earth’s climate became the one enjoyed today--according to records preserved in an ice core taken from the northern island. These speedy changes--transitions from warming to cooling and back again--in the absence of changes in greenhouse gas could presage abrupt, catastrophic climate change in our future. [More]