Showing papers on "Runaway climate change published in 1989"
TL;DR: Long-term climatic evolution has thus far been studied only with one-dimensional, globally-averaged climate models, and although such models can provide a qualitative understanding of climate history, they rely on a number of assumptions that may not have been valid in the past.
64 citations
13 citations
01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: In this paper, it was shown that climate change does not depend on the radiation balance of the atmosphere alone, but on the entire climate system, which includes the oceans, the biosphere polar ice masses and sea ice.
Abstract: The scientific community is now confronted with unambiguous evidence that the abundance of radiatively important gases in the atmosphere is changing. The scientific tools exist to calculate the effect of these gases on the Earth’s radiation balance. Is it then possible to draw firm conclusions with respect to projected climate change over the next half century? The answer is no, even if all processes internal to the atmosphere were completely understood. Climate change does not depend on the radiation balance of the atmosphere alone, but on the entire climate system, which includes the oceans, the biosphere polar ice masses and sea ice. Climate projections into the next century cannot be made with confidence until the role of the extra-atmospheric components of climate are better understood.
1 citations