Changing Speed:

I've found one rather disturbing trend in Climate Change articles in the last year... things always seem to be happening faster or sooner than Scientists expect. For example, the recent articles about the imminent collapse of the Wilkins ice shelf contains the quote from Dr David Vaughn of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS):

Wilkins is the largest ice shelf yet on the Antarctic peninsula to be threatened. I didn't expect to see things happen this quickly. The ice shelf is hanging by a thread – we'll know in the next few days or weeks what its fate will be.

In this case things are happening more rapidly than we thought. We didn't really understand how sensitive these ice shelves are to climate change.

While studies indicate that climate change is an accelerating process, it is disturbing that scientists are still being surprised by the rapidity of the change. Admittedly, not half as disturbing as the lack of international action.