Abrupt Climate Change
One of the types of climate change that was listed at the beginning of this unit summary was climate
surprises ("abrupt" changes to climate conditions not seen before in our recorded climate
history). There is mounting evidence for the occurrence of such events in the past. Steven
M. Stanley in the 15 February 2000 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy
of Science surveys 15 recent articles assessing the speed at which major climate change
can sweep across the planet, in what could be called "climate surprises."