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The Climate System with Human Actors – A Time Scale Perspective

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Multiplicity of Time Scales in Complex Systems

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Abstract

The IPCC now assess the global mean temperature increase since the latter part of the nineteenth century to be entirely anthropogenically in its origin. Along this development, decision-makers engaged with mitigating climate change are looking closely to the findings by the IPCC to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. This close encounter between decision-makers and the scientific community give rise to both scientific and public discussions that take their point of departure in the perception of the findings or lack thereof by the IPCC. Related to this, certain time scales emerge that reflect scientific progress as well as the frequency of IPCC updates. Here I report on these processes and how it implies intrinsic time scales to this interaction between the scientific and decision-making communities, emerging to be about 6 and 30 years.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physics of Ice, Climate and Earth, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Jens Hesselbjerg Christensen

  2. NORCE Norwegian Research Centre AS, Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Bergen, Norway

    Jens Hesselbjerg Christensen

  3. National Centre for Climate Research, Danish Meteorological Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Jens Hesselbjerg Christensen

Authors
  1. Jens Hesselbjerg Christensen
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Correspondence to Jens Hesselbjerg Christensen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Science and Environment, Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark

    Bernhelm Booß-Bavnbek

  2. Department of Physics of Ice, Climate and Earth; Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Jens Hesselbjerg Christensen

  3. Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Katherine Richardson

  4. Department of Economics, Business School, Leeds University, Leeds, UK

    Oriol Vallès Codina

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Christensen, J.H. (2023). The Climate System with Human Actors – A Time Scale Perspective. In: Booß-Bavnbek, B., Hesselbjerg Christensen, J., Richardson, K., Vallès Codina, O. (eds) Multiplicity of Time Scales in Complex Systems. Mathematics Online First Collections. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/16618_2023_62

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