posted 6 June 2003

COPY-AND-PASTE CITATION

William H. Calvin, "When climate staggers."  Lecture for UW biology course (8 July 2003). See also http://WilliamCalvin.com/2003/BiologyClimate.htm

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William H. Calvin 
it's an image, you need to type it, not copy it (spam...)         
 University of Washington
 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON 98195-1800 USA  

 

Coming on stage now is a stunning example of how civilization must rescue itself. It dwarfs the three big scientific alerts from the 1970s about global warming, ozone loss, and acid rain. But until the 1990s, no one knew much about abrupt climate change, those past occasions when the whole world flipped out of a warm-and-wet climate like today’s into the alternate mode, which is like a worldwide version of the Oklahoma Dust Bowl of the 1930s. There are big alterations in only 3-5 years. A few centuries later, the drought climate flips back into worldwide warm-and-wet, even more quickly. Unlike greenhouse warmings, the big flips have happened every few thousand years on average, though the most recent one was back before agriculture in 10,000 B.C. The next flip may arrive sooner than otherwise, thanks to our current warming trend. The northern extension of the Gulf Stream appears quite vulnerable to global warming in four different ways. An early warning might be a decline in this current. And according to two oceanographic studies published this last year, this vulnerable ocean current has been dramatically declining for the last 40-50 years, paralleling our global warming and rising CO2. To order a copy of one of my more recent books, click on a cover for the link to amazon.com. 

A Brain for All Seasons, 2002
 A Brain for All Seasons
2002

Lingua ex Machina: Reconciling Darwin and Chomsky with the Human Brain (Calvin & Bickerton, 2000)
Lingua ex Machina
2000

The Cerebral Code: Thinking a Thought in the Mosaics of the Mind (1996)
 The Cerebral Code
1996

How Brains Think: Evolving Intelligence, Then and Now (1996)
 How Brains Think
1996

Conversations with Neil's Brain: The Neural Nature of Thought and Language (Calvin & Ojemann, 1994)
 Conversations with
Neil's Brain
1994

The River That Flows Uphill
 The River That
Flows Uphill
1986

The Throwing Madonna: Essays on the Brain
 The Throwing Madonna
1983

copyright ©2003 by William H. Calvin

William H. Calvin
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 My mailing address: UW, Box 351800, Seattle WA 98195-1800 USA