Climate change may be accelerating more rapidly than predicted

Washington Post : A new study by climatologist James Hansen predicts that global warming will have more severe effects more quickly than previously thought. Along with 16 other researchers, Hansen says there is an “amplifying feedback” in relation to polar ice loss: As ice melts in Antarctica and Greenland, large volumes of cold, fresh water get dumped into the oceans, which slows down circulation patterns and causes a larger temperature contrast between the tropics and the poles. Increased ice melt from warm water trapped beneath the polar regions and more powerful storms created by the ever-increasing temperature differential will lead to greater sea-level rise and more catastrophic weather events than predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its 2013 climate assessment. That report had assumed a more linear process. The Washington Post article features feedback on the controversial study from a number of top climate researchers.