Unpredictability of chaotic systems

The nature of Chaotic Systems to amplify small changes, often via feedback loops, means that we are necessarily limited in the ability to predict outcomes in those systems. This is a fundamental issue when discussing “certainties” in predicting the future in climate science. The more chaotic and multifaceted, the more limited in ability a system’s outcomes are to predict¹.

1. Emanuel, K. & Inglis, B. What We Know about Climate Change, Updated Edition. (The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2018).