Is it too late to stop Global Warming ?
Posted by: Don Atkinson on 13 March 2005
Is it too late to stop Global Warming ?
For the lazy sods amongst us, I have highlighted the gist of this topic.
"Global Warming is a disaster waiting to happen", said Mrs D yesterday. "Bollocks" was the gist of my reply, "It's already happened"
According to popular science (ie what I learned at school), the recent geological history of the earth (ie the last million years or so) has been dominated by a succession of ice-ages. These have helped to carve the current, familiar landscape out of the wind/water-eroded, crumpled fault-lines and thrust-mountains along the north and south tropics. We enjoy the resultant scenery in the Rockies, the Alps, the Norwegian Fjords the Andes and New Zealand's South Island (LOTR). ISTR from school that the ice-ages were associated with independent 100,000; 40,000 and 20,000 year cycles, the latter being due to a "wobble" of the earth on its axis. When all three effects are co-aligned, we get the more severe ice-age; with wobble-induced-fluctuations superimposed at 20,000 year intervals (I think this latter interval is actually nearer 22,000 years) .
circa 11,000 years ago, the last ice-age had already receded sufficiently for humans in Asia to move into North America; and shortly after for the UK to be cut off from Europe as the polar ice-cap melted etc. At this time we were all still hunter-gatherers (according to my uncle Albert who says he can remember) and I "presume" the earth was well on its way to that inter-glacial point in the glacial cycle, of maximum warmth, if not actually at that point.
I can't recall what drives the 100,000 year (shape of the solar orbits?) and 40,000 year cycles and which of the cycles is dominant. Does anybody know where we "should" be in the ice-age cycle(s)? I have a hunch that we "should" be at the coldest point in a 22,000 year ice-age. But I don't know where we are in the other cycles.
I say "should" because clearly, the burning of fossil fuels over the last 200 years could be having a significant effect on the earth's climate; and human activity in the form of wide-spread migration, farming, deforestation and the building of cities, (all over the past 10,000 years) could likewise have had a huge impact on the cycle. I am therefore not convinced that it will be enough to stop burning coal and oil. To save the planet as we know it today, I think we will have to dramatically reduce the population numbers (say) from 6 billion to 6 million and revert to hunter-gathering.
Long-live Mr Archer and Mr Fletcher
Perhaps you have a better idea, or aren't so pessimistic?
Cheers
Don
For the lazy sods amongst us, I have highlighted the gist of this topic.
"Global Warming is a disaster waiting to happen", said Mrs D yesterday. "Bollocks" was the gist of my reply, "It's already happened"
According to popular science (ie what I learned at school), the recent geological history of the earth (ie the last million years or so) has been dominated by a succession of ice-ages. These have helped to carve the current, familiar landscape out of the wind/water-eroded, crumpled fault-lines and thrust-mountains along the north and south tropics. We enjoy the resultant scenery in the Rockies, the Alps, the Norwegian Fjords the Andes and New Zealand's South Island (LOTR). ISTR from school that the ice-ages were associated with independent 100,000; 40,000 and 20,000 year cycles, the latter being due to a "wobble" of the earth on its axis. When all three effects are co-aligned, we get the more severe ice-age; with wobble-induced-fluctuations superimposed at 20,000 year intervals (I think this latter interval is actually nearer 22,000 years) .
circa 11,000 years ago, the last ice-age had already receded sufficiently for humans in Asia to move into North America; and shortly after for the UK to be cut off from Europe as the polar ice-cap melted etc. At this time we were all still hunter-gatherers (according to my uncle Albert who says he can remember) and I "presume" the earth was well on its way to that inter-glacial point in the glacial cycle, of maximum warmth, if not actually at that point.
I can't recall what drives the 100,000 year (shape of the solar orbits?) and 40,000 year cycles and which of the cycles is dominant. Does anybody know where we "should" be in the ice-age cycle(s)? I have a hunch that we "should" be at the coldest point in a 22,000 year ice-age. But I don't know where we are in the other cycles.
I say "should" because clearly, the burning of fossil fuels over the last 200 years could be having a significant effect on the earth's climate; and human activity in the form of wide-spread migration, farming, deforestation and the building of cities, (all over the past 10,000 years) could likewise have had a huge impact on the cycle. I am therefore not convinced that it will be enough to stop burning coal and oil. To save the planet as we know it today, I think we will have to dramatically reduce the population numbers (say) from 6 billion to 6 million and revert to hunter-gathering.
Long-live Mr Archer and Mr Fletcher
Perhaps you have a better idea, or aren't so pessimistic?
Cheers
Don
I take it you didn't actually say "bollocks" to your other half, Don 
It's because of global warming that I have to get a condenser boiler in the near future - despite how troublesome they are supposed to be
Regards,
Jon
It's because of global warming that I have to get a condenser boiler in the near future - despite how troublesome they are supposed to be
Regards,
Jon
quote:Originally posted by Don Atkinson:
....after all, she's a bloody good cook...
Then you are a very lucky man indeed
Yes it is too late innit.
Fritz Von I watched spider man tonight for the first time, great stuff innit, didn't get gear filums like that when I hit saturday moaning pictures, OH NO, it was yer National Anthem (stand up) Cartoons, and Old Mother Riley, and like it, it's them pianists, that's when the warming really started to get out of control
Fritz Von I watched spider man tonight for the first time, great stuff innit, didn't get gear filums like that when I hit saturday moaning pictures, OH NO, it was yer National Anthem (stand up) Cartoons, and Old Mother Riley, and like it, it's them pianists, that's when the warming really started to get out of control
quote:Originally posted by Mick Parry:
Chaps
I like global warming. If Swindon can have a mediteranean climate then no complaints from me.
Regards
Mick
Mick
One of the side-effects of global warming could be a cooling of Northern countries currently warmed by the gulf stream. Metling polar ice could dilute the sea and stop the north atlantic current which supplies warm water to our islands. Swindon will be plummeted into a northern scandinavian-like climate and you'll be overrun by Viking refugees from Scandinavia looking for Varmlands.
Regards
Stephen
Did you know that the first model of car that Ford industries in USA produced was made for the 80% of canape!
But that's a thing we are not allowed to talk about.
Especially here in Italy.
But that's a thing we are not allowed to talk about.
Especially here in Italy.