The fact that it is the feedbacks within the climate structure that determine the time scale for irreversible change establishes the strategy for addressing climate change and thereby the link between choices for the generation of primary energy and the consequences of those choices for public policy.
Thus the feedbacks that must be quantified are:
- How rapidly is thermal energy (heat) flowing into the Arctic Ocean ice cover?
- How rapidly will carbon Dioxide and methane be released from carbon reservoirs in Siberia and Northern Alaska as the system begins to melt as a result of the loss of permanent ice in the Arctic?
- With the loss of Arctic Ocean ice cover and its control over the flow of internal energy (heat) into the Greenland Glacial System, how will the dynamic of glacial ice contribute to sea level rise?
- With increased forcing of the climate system, how will convective injections of water into the stratospheric respond and thus how will ozone catalytic loss by bromine and chlorine respond?