Week 7: Case study: rapid climate change

So we bow to your democratic demands, and will do rapid climate change as a case study. (It was the winner by a wide margin, except for a recount in Florida)

We were a little reticent to pick this for a couple of reasons a) it is all too easy to be negative, and b) not everybody may have the background. On the other hand any problem probably has these properties. So let's strive to be constructive:

• How do we move forward to make progress if we declare this to be our 'big problem?'
• How does thinking about a practical problem change our 'check lists'?

It is a big messy problem that has many aspects. None of us has enough background in all of these aspects. What we really want to do is focus on the lessons we can learn about how to tackle complex problems, as much as it is about this particular issue.

Lets just see how it goes.

Next week will hopefully star Eric Steig, who will give us the benefit of his wisdom on the issue (or it will be me doing a shoddy impersonation). Then in 9th week we can brainstorm on a recipe for research going forward on this issue.

1. So, for this weeks meeting, please review/email comments

• David's effort to sythesize a checklist (link). Right now the list is quite long. Can it be distilled more succinctly? What is missing/wrong/not generally applicable?
  

2. Rapid climate change overview articles/email comments

• Alley et al., 1999: making sense of millennial-scale climate change (pdf)
• Rahmstorf., 2002: ocean circulation and climate during the past 120,000 years (pdf)

If you have read the above before, as many of you have, also try to get to this Seager and Battisti production

• Seager and Battisti, 2006: Challenges to our understanding of the general circulation: abrupt climate change (pdf)