The climate change pattern (for now) seems to be a steady anthropogenic long term rise of average temperatures, overlaid by a pattern of natural fluctuations (El Nino etc.). This leads to new highs with some periodicity.
It is not clear for how long this pattern will persist. There is the issue of tipping points in what is a very complex dynamic system (atmosphere, oceans, permafrost, polar regions etc.)
The everyday analogy is boiling water in a pot. As we slowly inject heat at the bottom of the pot, the patterns of water motion change a lot as the temperature rises. First some occasional air bubble, then some visible currents, eventually just a chaotic, unstable, mess.
Now if only the frogs inside the pot would stop gazing at the gently rising air bubbles and realise that this is not all there is to it, future frogs might be very deeply inconvenienced...
It is not clear for how long this pattern will persist. There is the issue of tipping points in what is a very complex dynamic system (atmosphere, oceans, permafrost, polar regions etc.)
The everyday analogy is boiling water in a pot. As we slowly inject heat at the bottom of the pot, the patterns of water motion change a lot as the temperature rises. First some occasional air bubble, then some visible currents, eventually just a chaotic, unstable, mess.
Now if only the frogs inside the pot would stop gazing at the gently rising air bubbles and realise that this is not all there is to it, future frogs might be very deeply inconvenienced...