Abstract
Studies of past climate using paleo‐data suggest that large and rapid climate changes have occurred throughout history, and that changes in the thermohaline circulation of the ocean are a major factor in many of these cases. Some of these past rapid changes occurred over a period as brief as a decade, whereas we tend to think of significant climate change as occurring over centuries or millennia. The third assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change OPCQ, released in 2001, discussed the potential slowdown of the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation under a global warming scenario (http://www.ipcc.ch/). In addition, a recent US. National Research Council report highlighted the concerns over the possibility of rapid changes in climate and their potential socioeconomic impacts (http://www.nap. edu/catalog/10136.html). The new U.K.Natural Environment Research Council (NERQ Rapid Climate Change Programme (RAPID) is, in part, a response to such concerns.
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