Earth System Science Quotes

“This sense of instability is reinforced when we look within the last ice age at shorter-term climate fluctuations. There were repeated, incredibly rapid climate changes that were at least hemispheric in the extent of their impacts. As the last ice age ended, our record of these abrupt climate changes comes into sharper focus, revealing that warming of up to 10°C in Greenland has occurred within less than a decade. This reinforces the idea that the present climate system is unusually unstable—at least on relatively short timescales—providing an important backdrop for thinking about our own planet-changing activities as a species.”
― Tim Lenton, Earth System Science: A Very Short Introduction

“If we consider ourselves and our societies as integral parts of the Earth system, and we take seriously the new properties that humans bring to the Earth system, then this requires a new kind of Earth system science. It has to integrate elements of the social sciences at least insofar as they help us to understand the role of human agency in planetary functioning. This could change the nature of Earth system models and the ways in which we use them. Instead of making predictions based on some set of assumptions about future human activities—as if we lived outside of the system—human activities and agency could become a more integral part of the models. Equally, Earth system considerations call for some rethinking of economics and a wider social discussion about what kind of future we want, which will engage the arts and the humanities as well as the social sciences.”
― Tim Lenton, Earth System Science: A Very Short Introduction

“Whilst human transformation of the planet was initially unwitting, now we are increasingly collectively aware of it. This poses a challenge to Earth system science because we humans have conscious foresight and a sense of purpose that (as far as we know) has never been part of the Earth system before. This changes the Earth system fundamentally, because it means that one species can consciously, collectively shape the future trajectory of our planet. We know our current way of living is unsustainable, but we are still trying to work out what a sustainable and prosperous future looks like. This is an opportunity for Earth system science, because it is the field that can tell us what makes a sustainable Earth system and what does not.”
― Tim Lenton, Earth System Science: A Very Short Introduction

“view of the Earth System as a set of interacting processes operating on a wide range of spatial and temporal scales, rather than as a collection of individual components’.”
― Tim Lenton, Earth System Science: A Very Short Introduction