Revealed: Secrets of Abrupt Climate Shifts

This story is the dream of every science writer. It features some of the most dramatic and rapid climate shifts in Earth?s history, as well as tenacious scientists braving the hostile ice and snows of Greenland and Antarctica for years on end to bring home that most precious material: kilometre-long cores of ancient ice, dating back over a hundred thousand years. Back in their labs, these women and men spend many months of seclusion on high-precision measurements, finding ingenious ways to unravel the secrets of abrupt climate change. Quite a bit has already been written on the ice core feat (including Richard Alley?s commendable inside story ?The Two Mile Time Machine?), and no doubt much more will be.