Cold comfort

摘要

Avoiding climate change is like avoid-ing getting fat. That one extra biscuit won't make much difference, but once the kilos are on it is hard to get them off. Both "The Weather Makers" and "Field Notes from a Catastrophe" make an analogous point-that global warming is a process that is hard to reverse. Climate change is more visible at the poles than elsewhere, for example, because ice is one of the best reflectors of sunlight, and water is one of the worst. Melt the ice and the balance between heat sent packing straight back into space and heat retained to warm the planet shifts very fast.