Climate tipping point question

[David H]

This theory is totally bugging me. James Hansen claims that at a future point of rising CO2, when the temperature reaches around +2.5C there will be a runaway increase with associated chaos.

As I only managed O level physics I only have the basics, but seems to me to violate two laws of physics. By simply changing the atmosphere, how can you actually create more heat than goes in, assuming the sun is constant for this equation? His theory implies that at a certain point he refers to as a 'tipping point', the hitherto relatively stable climate will go haywire as will the temperature.

The second is that tipping points only refer to objects with mass reaching a point where the portion over a line reaches over 50% of its total and gravity takes over and it falls. You could just about call boiling point one as well but that won't apply here of course.

So my simple question is that bearing in mind this is a future event with no prior history or known experimental data, what phenomenon does he claim will change a climate which has undergone CO2 and temperature levels far higher than the present and forseeable future is now going to go crazy when it crosses a hitherto unknown point?

I have more time and patience than at 16 so the little research I could manage tells me every single aspect of his claim is impossible. Not unlikely or sheer genius, but 100% against every law of conservation of energy, heat and mass. But as I have no actual training past 16 I have to ask people who should know to see if I may still have missed something.

[David H]

Meanwhile here is common sense. The highest prediction at maximum temperature for 2100 here is a whole two feet, with closer to the usual under a foot or so at the lower estimate. How two such polar opposite predictions can share the same universe while both being issued by presumably equally qualified yet deluded alchemists is anyone's guess, but in the end it's irrelevant as besides history tells us the likeliest results already, in case anyone hasn't told you, we can't predict the future, not in an open system anyhow.

http://www.bdix.net/s...ate_sealevel_rise.htm