Abouy 12,000 years ago, as the world warmed after the last ice age, temperatures in the far north plummeted. This was probably caused by a huge injection of fresh water from melting ice sheets. Could something similar happen over the next century? Most climate scientists would say no, because they expect it to take centuries for the great ice sheets to begin melting in earnest. But renowned climate scientist fames Hansen thinks that with the planet warming more rapidly than ever before, the ice sheets will melt faster, leading to rapid sea level rise. His work suggests that the average surface temperature of the entire planet will temporarily fall as a result, leading to even more climate chaos (see page 9).
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