Climatic Determinism

Abstract

The often-accepted hypothesis that the physical laws governing the behavior of an atmosphere determine a unique climate is examined critically. It is noted that there are some physical systems (transitive systems) whose statistics taken over infinite time intervals are uniquely determined by the governing laws and the environmental conditions, and other systems (intransitive systems) where this is not the case. There are also certain transitive systems (almost intransitive systems) whose statistics taken over very long but finite intervals differ considerably from one such interval to another. The possibility that long-term climatic changes may result from the almost-intransitivity of the atmosphere rather than from environmental changes is suggested.