That is hard to parse. You are asking why I think the rate of runaway positive feedback cycles is difficult to control? That is because that is often their nature.
Allow me to try: There are positive feedback cycles which appear to be going in runaway mode. Why is this evidence for “things are going to get better” rather than “things are going to get worse”?
Your argument as a whole- “we need to get above this variability regime into a stable regime”- answers why the runaway positive feedback loop would be desirable, but does not convincingly establish (the part I’ve read, at least, you may do this elsewhere) that the part above the current variability is actually a stable attractor, instead of us shooting to up to Venus’s climate (or something less extreme but still regrettable for humans).
but does not convincingly establish (the part I’ve read, at least, you may do this elsewhere) that the part above the current variability is actually a stable attractor, instead of us shooting to up to Venus’s climate (or something less extreme but still regrettable for humans).
Well, we already know what the planet is like when it is not locked into a crippling ice age. Ice-cap free is how the planet has spent the vast majority of its history. We have abundant records about that already.
Why is this evidence for “things are going to get better” rather than “things are going to get worse”?
That’s the whole “ice age: bad / normal planet: good” notion. I figure a planet locked into a crippling era of catastrophic glacial cycles is undesirable.
Allow me to try: There are positive feedback cycles which appear to be going in runaway mode. Why is this evidence for “things are going to get better” rather than “things are going to get worse”?
Your argument as a whole- “we need to get above this variability regime into a stable regime”- answers why the runaway positive feedback loop would be desirable, but does not convincingly establish (the part I’ve read, at least, you may do this elsewhere) that the part above the current variability is actually a stable attractor, instead of us shooting to up to Venus’s climate (or something less extreme but still regrettable for humans).
Well, we already know what the planet is like when it is not locked into a crippling ice age. Ice-cap free is how the planet has spent the vast majority of its history. We have abundant records about that already.
That’s the whole “ice age: bad / normal planet: good” notion. I figure a planet locked into a crippling era of catastrophic glacial cycles is undesirable.