Accelerated feedback

In systems theory we talk about co-creating systems and reinforcing loops.

In a BBC report today 14Aug09: The fact that antarctic ice (specific data from Pine Island Glacier) is thinning four times faster than ten years ago shows that the ice-melting trend is accelerating. There are several reinforcing feedback loops that accelerate this phenomenon. Accelerated feedback means that equilibrium is rapidly lost. Our climate may have been very robust and stable for a very long time but we are on the verge of a tipping point - and when that happens, we won't be able to stop it. What concerns me is that despite the fact that many people know this we keep doing the same things, which keeps the same trend running in the same direction.

The trend is towards rapidly diminishing ice and this specific future is clear. There will be no significant ice packs, and with it sea levels are expected to rise significantly (7m for the Greenland Ice Sheet and 5m for the West Antarctic Ice Sheet). This isn't going to happen overnight - this is a long term climate trend, not a weather report - but it does mean that something you know very well (E.g. the London underground train transport network) will change significantly (i.e. get flooded and seize to operate).