Re:How can climate be predictable if weather is chaotic?
by jfengel on Monday October 26, 2020 @05:16PM
(#24901516)
I'm not sure that appealing to chaos theory really makes the answer more acccessible than the not-so-good answers she's trying to surpass. As she says, weather doesn't really work like that; it's just an analogy. But an analogy to an unfamiliar thing isn't really going to help a whole lot of people.
The problem with climate change isn't about radiative forcing causing a large, discrete jump in temperature. It's a fairly classical, non-chaotic effect. Add a little CO2 and get a little temperature increase; add a lot of CO2 and get a large temperature increase -- when averaged over time (a period of several years).
There are plenty of chaotic elements to understand about both weather and climate, but I don't think they'll help most people understand the difference between the two.
The problem with climate change isn't about radiative forcing causing a large, discrete jump in temperature. It's a fairly classical, non-chaotic effect. Add a little CO2 and get a little temperature increase; add a lot of CO2 and get a large temperature increase -- when averaged over time (a period of several years).
There are plenty of chaotic elements to understand about both weather and climate, but I don't think they'll help most people understand the difference between the two.