Thought you m ight appreciate this re our last discussion. Point being that the earth has gone through similar processes before Not to say we are not MAYBE speeding it up with certain things but it may have been inevitable anyway A summary of the sequence of events for the last 130,000 years ('real' years); -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 150,000 y.a. - cold, dry full glacial world around 130,000 y.a. - rapid warming initiates the Eemian interglacial (Stage 5e) 130,000-110,000 y.a. - global climates generally warmer and moister than present, but with progressive cooling to temperatures more similar to present. (except for possible global cold, dry event at 121,000 y.a.) ?110,000 y.a. - a strong cooling marks the end of the Eemian interglacial (Stage 5e). 105,000-95,000 y.a. - climate warms slightly but still cooler and drier than present; strong fluctuations. 95,000 - 93,000 y.a. - another cooler phase similar to that at 110,000 y.a. 93,000 - 75,000 y.a. - a milder phase, resembling that at 105,000-95,000 y.a. 75,000 - 60,000 y.a. - full glacial world, cold and dry (the 'Lower Pleniglacial' or Stage 4) 60,000 - 25,000 y.a. - 'middling phase' of highly unstable but generally cooler and drier-than-present conditions (Stage 3) 25,000 - 15,000 y.a. - full glacial world, cold and dry; Stage 2 (includes the 'Last Glacial Maximum') (This period includes two 'coldest phases' - Heinrich Events - at around 23,000-21,000 y.a. and at 17,000-14,500 y.a.) 14,500 y.a. - rapid warming and moistening of climates in some areas. Rapid deglaciation begins. 13,500 y.a. - nearly all areas with climates at least as warm and moist as today's 12,800 y.a. (+/- 200 years)- rapid onset of cool, dry Younger Dryas in many areas 11,500 y.a. (+/- 200 years) - Younger Dryas ends suddenly, back to warmth and moist climates (Holocene, or Stage 1) 9,000 y.a. - 8,200 y.a. - climates warmer and often moister than today's about 8,200 y.a. - sudden cool and dry phase in many areas 8,000-4,500 y.a. - climates somewhat warmer and moister than today's Since 4,500 y.a. - climates fairly similar to the present (except; about 2600 y.a. - relatively wet/cold event (of unknown duration) in many areas)
not saying its a complete myth as some bloke said nature is an angry beast and we may be poking a stick at it It has happened before though and there were no humans around
Climate change is cyclicial but that doesn't mean what's happening now is natural or that it isn't being speeded up by human activity. Dying is natural but you can speed up the process by smoking, drinking and eating fast food every day
A common skeptic argument is that climate has changed naturally in the past, long before SUVs and coal-fired power plants, so therefore humans cannot be causing global warming now. Interestingly, the peer-reviewed research into past climate change comes to the opposite conclusion. To understand this, first you have to ask why climate has changed in the past. It doesn't happen by magic. Climate changes when it’s forced to change. When our planet suffers an energy imbalance and gains or loses heat, global temperature changes. There are a number of different forces which can influence the Earth’s climate. When the sun gets brighter, the planet receives more energy and warms. When volcanoes erupt, they emit particles into the atmosphere which reflect sunlight, and the planet cools. When there are more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the planet warms. These effects are referred to as external forcings because by changing the planet's energy balance, they force climate to change. It is obviously true that past climate change was caused by natural forcings. However, to argue that this means we can’t cause climate change is like arguing that humans can’t start bushfires because in the past they’ve happened naturally. Greenhouse gas increases have caused climate change many times in Earth’s history, and we are now adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere at a increasingly rapid rate. Looking at the past gives us insight into how our climate responds to external forcings. Using ice cores, for instance, we can work out the degree of past temperature change, the level of solar activity, and the amount of greenhouse gases and volcanic dust in the atmosphere. From this, we can determine how temperature has changed due to past energy imbalances. What we have found, looking at many different periods and timescales in Earth's history, is that when the Earth gains heat, positive feedbacks amplify the warming. This is why we've experienced such dramatic changes in temperature in the past. Our climate is highly sensitive to changes in heat. We can even quantify this: when you include positive feedbacks, a doubling of CO2 causes a warming of around 3°C. What does that mean for today? Rising greenhouse gas levels are an external forcing, which has caused climate changes many times in Earth's history. They're causing an energy imbalance and the planet is building up heat. From Earth's history, we know that positive feedbacks will amplify the greenhouse warming. So past climate change doesn't tell us that humans can't influence climate; on the contrary, it tells us that climate is highly sensitive to the greenhouse warming we're now causing.
ive seen a few movies on the theory, the day after tomorrow, independence day, sunshine , 10,000 bc and aliens so I think I know a little on the subject.
its more than being skeptical as it has occurred in the past over and that is proven The only consistent pattern being its occurrence, time periods being inconsistent Its been 13000 years (approx) since the last 'ice age' (its technically not an ice age) so there is no evidence to suggest its not a natural cycle There is a theory that greenhouse gasses created by humans can/have sped this up, but time has shown these some of these theories fall by the wayside as quoted before Nature is angry and we MAY be poking it with a stick
Over the past several decades, rising concentrations of greenhouse gases have been detected in the Earth's atmosphere. Although there is not universal agreement within the scientific community on the impacts of increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases, it has been theorized that they may lead to an increase in the average temperature of the Earth's surface. To date, it has been difficult to note such an increase conclusively because of the differences in temperature around the Earth and throughout the year, and because of the difficulty of distinguishing permanent temperature changes from the normal fluctuations of the Earth's climate. In addition, there is not universal agreement among scientists and climatologists on the potential impacts of an increase in the average temperature of the Earth, although it has been hypothesized that it could lead to a variety of changes in the global climate, sea level, agricultural patterns, and ecosystems that could be, on net, detrimental. The most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that: “Our ability to quantify the human influence on global climate is currently limited because the expected signal is still emerging from the noise of natural variability, and because there are uncertainties in key factors. These include the magnitudes and patterns of long-term variability and the time-evolving pattern of forcing by, and response to, changes in concentrations of greenhouse gases and aerosols, and land surface changes. Nevertheless, the balance of evidence suggests that there is a discernable human influence on global climate
Thefanwithnoname I would love to argue about this, it's one of my favourite subjects. Let me do some work first, I'll be back in a bit to share some of my wisdom
because the havent happened go back to the 80's when we were going to have scorching winters etc etc etc You dont need a time machine you lived through it I do accept you may have been too drunk/drugged to notice
The effect of climate change is happenening all around us RIGHT NOW! It's just awful! I have to stumble around in semi-darkness due to **** lightbulbs! I have to put my paper in one bin, my glass in another, food in the compost - FFS I want to throw it away not file it! And to make matters worse, gone is the simple pleasure of dumping a fridge in a canal
Mine too. Hence the effort of posting it As long as you realise that it isnt about 'mines bigger than yours' or '**** off i believe this so blah blah blah' I genuinely like looking into/discussing things. Often playing devils advocate look forward to the 'wisdom'
Right, this is getting ridiculous. because the havent happened - Becuse what hasn't happened? Scorching winters? Where? Who said that? And you do understand that localised weather has nothing to do with climate don't you? You dont need a time machine you lived through it - are you trying to be funny? I do accept you may have been too drunk/drugged to notice - I wasn't old enough to do further education in the 80s (despite what EDGE may claim) but I was old enough to do a degree in Environmental Biology in the 90s.
