Er, it's been climate change for a while. We're currently in the middle of two things:
1) The Continuing Industrial Revolution (TM), in which large quantities of gases are pumped into the atmosphere. Said gases have the property of reflecting infrared radiation, meaning they'll reflect the heat back at the earth without stopping much of it reaching the earth. For an example of this process gone haywire, see: Venus (average surface temperature: hot enough to melt lead).
2) The continuing natural cycle of the earth's climate, which is leading us towards an ice age.
The reason there seems to be contradiction here is that, since we've never had an industrial revolution coincide with an oncoming ice age before, no one actually knows which is going to happen. What is certain is that the climate is (and always has been) an unstable system. Block out too much sunlight for a while and you get an ice age, which is reasonably stable (ice reflects sunlight, keeps it cold). Hold in too much heat for a while and you get Venus, which is also reasonably stable. But this walking-the-fine-line thing we're doing isn't stable. No, that doesn't mean things happen instantaneously -- this is a massive volume of air we're talking about, not to mention the land underneath it. But they happen.
1) The Continuing Industrial Revolution (TM), in which large quantities of gases are pumped into the atmosphere. Said gases have the property of reflecting infrared radiation, meaning they'll reflect the heat back at the earth without stopping much of it reaching the earth. For an example of this process gone haywire, see: Venus (average surface temperature: hot enough to melt lead).
2) The continuing natural cycle of the earth's climate, which is leading us towards an ice age.
The reason there seems to be contradiction here is that, since we've never had an industrial revolution coincide with an oncoming ice age before, no one actually knows which is going to happen. What is certain is that the climate is (and always has been) an unstable system. Block out too much sunlight for a while and you get an ice age, which is reasonably stable (ice reflects sunlight, keeps it cold). Hold in too much heat for a while and you get Venus, which is also reasonably stable. But this walking-the-fine-line thing we're doing isn't stable. No, that doesn't mean things happen instantaneously -- this is a massive volume of air we're talking about, not to mention the land underneath it. But they happen.
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