The Climate Change Paradox. “Earth’s climate is chaotic and volatile. Climate change is simple and predictable. How can both be true?” Complexity & chaos theory are so interesting.
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Comments 1
Weather is chaotic on timescales of a few days or less. Climate is the long-term average of weather. It may also be chaotic but if it is it's on timescales of centuries: within those timescales we can make increasingly good predictions.
We know climate is not chaotic on scales of decades because, for instance, trees exist: trees depend on the climate remaining fairly stable over their lives (and longer: the offspring of a tree generally grow fairly close to the tree so forests can migrate only very slowly), and they have lives measured in centuries.
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