Sudden Catastrophic Climate Events in The Past Had No Single Trigger. Here's Why - ScienceAlert

According to the researchers, the ice core data we have – and complementary climate simulations run by the team – suggest a diversity of coinciding factors combine in relatively close proximity to create the Dansgaard-Oeschger events, and it's not yet possible to know for sure which of these underlying mechanisms might pre-empt the others, or be more fundamentally important.

"There might not be a unique sequence of changes representing Dansgaard-Oeschger warmings nor a unique trigger per se to these abrupt changes," the authors write in their paper.

"The emerging picture of the Dansgaard-Oeschger warmings is one in which the components of the climate system are so tightly coupled that it may not be possible to resolve significant leads and lags between them, and consequently, it may be elusive to search for a single sequence of events in proxy data that can adequately describe all Last Glacial abrupt climate transitions.".

"The results emphasize the importance of trying to limit climate change by, for example, cutting anthropogenic emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, both to reduce the predictable, gradual climate change and to reduce the risk of future abrupt climate change," says co-author and climate physicist Sune Olander Rasmussen from the University of Copenhagen