Climate change

[duckinnut]

Three quarters of the good earth was covered in ice at one time and now it's not. Pretty sure man had nothing to do with that ice melting either, simply because we didn't exist. So how are we responsible for it today? These climate change/global warming doomists only go back far enough in time to validate their point. Say a 100 years or so but in earths age terms is barely a nano second.Woods Hole Oceanagraphic Institute did a study of sedimentary mud on the ocean floor by doing deep core samples. They froze the samples then sliced them in half and they could determine the temperature fluctuations of the ocean over hundreds of thousands of years from the mud based on organic matters. The best part of this study was it was done toward the end of Al Gore's VP stint and paid for by his very administration. Needless to say he didn't use that info to further his false crusade flying around in his G5.

 

[chickened]

Lets not forget seashell fossils on Mt Everest. It was covered with water once also.

 

[Wishing4Wings]

There's always some doomsday prediction-- over population, rainforest destruction, extreme weather. The earth is a dynamic system. It will change whether we want it to or not. I do, however, believe it is in our best interest to be responsible stewards. The air quality in CA is actually better than it was in the 60s, despite the huge growth in population, because of cleaner burning car engines. Technology causes problems, technology solves problems.

I resent how politicians and activist groups exploit these situations, using fear tactics to control us, in a thinly disguised power grab. Common sense is replaced with name calling and demonizing, and the average citizen suddenly "needs" a whole packet of new laws for "our own good." And pretty much every new law comes with a new fee or tax. But as frustrating as this is, I don't want to be reactionary in the opposite way. Humans do impact our environment, and if we can find ways to lessen negative impacts, we probably should. Try to find some balance, use common sense, but don't treat me like a baby.

 

[GardenerGal]

Lets not forget seashell fossils on Mt Everest. It was covered with water once also.

To be more accurate, Mt. Everest and all of the Himalayas were once the sea floor far below where they are now. Look up plate tectonics for details, but as a general explanation, the crust of the Earth is fluid, and "floats" on a super-heated, compressed layer of magma. So, the continents are not actually fixed to the Earth, but move over time. What is now the Indian subcontinent was an island south of Eurasia, and over millions of years it gradually has been migrating northward and collided with Eurasia about 40 million years ago.

As it did, the enormous pressure of the slo-mo collision has gradually pushed the sea floor around the continental crust of Eurasia, as well as the continent itself, forcing it into the jagged mountains that we call the Himalaya. Think of a thick cloth bath mat that you push against a wall--- it rumples and makes "mountains."

So, what was once sea floor over 40 million years ago, is now mountains well above sea level. And, this process is still going on. The Himalayan peaks are continuing to get higher as the Indian subcontinent continues to move northward.

When I was in Nepal, you could get fossil ammonites (an extinct sea snail), fossilized coral and other fossil sea creatures, in the market stalls around Kathmandu valley. The mountainsides at high altitudes are literally covered with them, many now under snow.

 

[chickened]

To be more accurate, Mt. Everest and all of the Himalayas were once the sea floor far below where they are now. Look up plate tectonics for details, but as a general explanation, the crust of the Earth is fluid, and "floats" on a super-heated, compressed layer of magma. So, the continents are not actually fixed to the Earth, but move over time. What is now the Indian subcontinent was an island south of Eurasia, and over millions of years it gradually has been migrating northward and collided with Eurasia about 40 million years ago.

As it did, the enormous pressure of the slo-mo collision has gradually pushed the sea floor around the continental crust of Eurasia, as well as the continent itself, forcing it into the jagged mountains that we call the Himalaya. Think of a thick cloth bath mat that you push against a wall--- it rumples and makes "mountains."

So, what was once sea floor over 40 million years ago, is now mountains well above sea level. And, this process is still going on. The Himalayan peaks are continuing to get higher as the Indian subcontinent continues to move northward.

When I was in Nepal, you could get fossil ammonites (an extinct sea snail), fossilized coral and other fossil sea creatures, in the market stalls around Kathmandu valley. The mountainsides at high altitudes are literally covered with them, many now under snow.

It is interesting that they find seashells on mountain tops but have yet to fine land dwellers on the sea bottom. Makes you wonder. They have found tropical vegetation in core samples in greenland or iceland though but relatively shallow in depth.

 

[duckinnut]

I checked the glove box(do they still call it that?) and there was no owners manual for the earth. So who's to say what the standard operating temperature is supposed to be. It is only what we have become accustomed to. There is no manual,guide,reference book or chart to say the earth will always be within this range and only a fool would say that there is. Being a HUGE fan of Deadliest Catch, this winter was one of the worst they have seen in 40 years. Arctic ice over took over the fishing grounds more than a month early. Oops my bad,it is no longer global warming,its climate change. I love when they say that the earth is rapidly growing warmer and its causes extreme freezing temps.

That makes sense.

Lets talk climate change, I live in New England, nuff said. Its hot in the summer,but not always, cold in the winter,most of the time and downright freaking freezing other times. Spring is cool and damp and fall is fickle but not as fickle as doomsday advocates.

So if someone comes across the owners manual send me a copy.

 

[GardenerGal]

It is interesting that they find seashells on mountain tops but have yet to fine land dwellers on the sea bottom. Makes you wonder. They have found tropical vegetation in core samples in greenland or iceland though but relatively shallow in depth.

There were lots of shallow seas at various times. A lot of North America was under one, and among the remnants today is the Great Salt Lake. There are fossils of sea creatures in some of our vast desert regions in the West, and elsewhere. There were shallow seas and vast marshy areas covering a lot of the U.S.; wherever there were, you can find dinosaur tracks, coal and oil.
Continental crust is always on the move. Either the solid land under the polar ice caps was somewhere else warmer, on the planet long ago, and/or the atmosphere at some point was so thick with greenhouse gases that total global temperatures were high enough that there were global tropics and no ice even at the Arctic Circle.

You won't find land dwellers on the sea bottom because Earth is a water planet -- oceans are the constant, with land masses being either inundated by higher seas, or exposed to the air by lowering sea levels (during ice ages when much water is bound up as ice). The deepest reaches and trenches of the oceans were always such, and never were dry land, so there were never land plants or animals living there. The crust that was pushed up into the air and is now the Himalayas, was the bottom of shallow seas.

Another interesting thing going on 40 million years ago, and part of the same period of tectonic activity as the Indian subcontinent' collision with Eurasia, was the completion of the splitting of a mega-landmass into what are now South America and Africa. The plates beneath the mega-landmass were moving in opposite direction, sort of like someone on rollerskates having one skate go one way and the other skate going the other way...to perform an uninteneded split. If you look at those continents, you can see where they once fit together, and geologists have found the identical geologic formations and mineral contents on the east coast of S. America and W. Africa. Not only that, but the split caused a genetic drift in the species of animals living on the mega-landmass. The ancestor of the modern camelids had part of its population left in Africa and the other part separated by an increasingly growing distance of ocean. Today, we see the DNA connecting modern camels (Bactrian and Dromedary) of Africa and Asia (Asia having always been accessible to and from Africa) and the llamas, vicunas, alpacas and guanacos of S. America -- the result of genetic drift. Also, there are "Old World" and "New World" monkeys, parrots and countless other life forms, including now-extinct ones, that were similarly the result of the schism. South America has so many species of plants and animals with analogous African/Asian species, all resulting in the past 40 million years.

 

[chickened]

There were lots of shallow seas at various times. A lot of North America was under one, and among the remnants today is the Great Salt Lake. There are fossils of sea creatures in some of our vast desert regions in the West, and elsewhere. There were shallow seas and vast marshy areas covering a lot of the U.S.; wherever there were, you can find dinosaur tracks, coal and oil.
Continental crust is always on the move. Either the solid land under the polar ice caps was somewhere else warmer, on the planet long ago, and/or the atmosphere at some point was so thick with greenhouse gases that total global temperatures were high enough that there were global tropics and no ice even at the Arctic Circle.

You won't find land dwellers on the sea bottom because Earth is a water planet -- oceans are the constant, with land masses being either inundated by higher seas, or exposed to the air by lowering sea levels (during ice ages when much water is bound up as ice). The deepest reaches and trenches of the oceans were always such, and never were dry land, so there were never land plants or animals living there. The crust that was pushed up into the air and is now the Himalayas, was the bottom of shallow seas.

Another interesting thing going on 40 million years ago, and part of the same period of tectonic activity as the Indian subcontinent' collision with Eurasia, was the completion of the splitting of a mega-landmass into what are now South America and Africa. The plates beneath the mega-landmass were moving in opposite direction, sort of like someone on rollerskates having one skate go one way and the other skate going the other way...to perform an uninteneded split. If you look at those continents, you can see where they once fit together, and geologists have found the identical geologic formations and mineral contents on the east coast of S. America and W. Africa. Not only that, but the split caused a genetic drift in the species of animals living on the mega-landmass. The ancestor of the modern camelids had part of its population left in Africa and the other part separated by an increasingly growing distance of ocean. Today, we see the DNA connecting modern camels (Bactrian and Dromedary) of Africa and Asia (Asia having always been accessible to and from Africa) and the llamas, vicunas, alpacas and guanacos of S. America -- the result of genetic drift. Also, there are "Old World" and "New World" monkeys, parrots and countless other life forms, including now-extinct ones, that were similarly the result of the schism. South America has so many species of plants and animals with analogous African/Asian species, all resulting in the past 40 million years.

Are you familiar with a theory that the earth was on a straight axis and the seasons did not exist? Also that the earth 's orbit around the sun was a perfect circle not the current oval pattern? I am not sure I believe it as fact but from what I have read it is very possible and would explain some of the possible effects to the earth as a result of it being so.

 

[Royd]

There were lots of shallow seas at various times. A lot of North America was under one, and among the remnants today is the Great Salt Lake. There are fossils of sea creatures in some of our vast desert regions in the West, and elsewhere. There were shallow seas and vast marshy areas covering a lot of the U.S.; wherever there were, you can find dinosaur tracks, coal and oil.
Continental crust is always on the move. Either the solid land under the polar ice caps was somewhere else warmer, on the planet long ago, and/or the atmosphere at some point was so thick with greenhouse gases that total global temperatures were high enough that there were global tropics and no ice even at the Arctic Circle.

You won't find land dwellers on the sea bottom because Earth is a water planet -- oceans are the constant, with land masses being either inundated by higher seas, or exposed to the air by lowering sea levels (during ice ages when much water is bound up as ice). The deepest reaches and trenches of the oceans were always such, and never were dry land, so there were never land plants or animals living there. The crust that was pushed up into the air and is now the Himalayas, was the bottom of shallow seas.

Another interesting thing going on 40 million years ago, and part of the same period of tectonic activity as the Indian subcontinent' collision with Eurasia, was the completion of the splitting of a mega-landmass into what are now South America and Africa. The plates beneath the mega-landmass were moving in opposite direction, sort of like someone on rollerskates having one skate go one way and the other skate going the other way...to perform an uninteneded split. If you look at those continents, you can see where they once fit together, and geologists have found the identical geologic formations and mineral contents on the east coast of S. America and W. Africa. Not only that, but the split caused a genetic drift in the species of animals living on the mega-landmass. The ancestor of the modern camelids had part of its population left in Africa and the other part separated by an increasingly growing distance of ocean. Today, we see the DNA connecting modern camels (Bactrian and Dromedary) of Africa and Asia (Asia having always been accessible to and from Africa) and the llamas, vicunas, alpacas and guanacos of S. America -- the result of genetic drift. Also, there are "Old World" and "New World" monkeys, parrots and countless other life forms, including now-extinct ones, that were similarly the result of the schism. South America has so many species of plants and animals with analogous African/Asian species, all resulting in the past 40 million years.

All this theory and conjecture by the scientific community, and yet, all the handwringing by the same, as if humans are going to throw a wrench in the whole thing.

 

[Mattemma]

We shall see in a few years. Once our food supply is down the weather will be big talk.

I was suprised to read about a Florida company that markets a dessicant for hurricanes.Do they think it will JUST affect the hurricane? So much geo-ngineering going on. The weather has altered what I plant. I refuse To pay for water to water my plants.

We have had quite a few severe storms and tornado warnings around here.Never had the tornado warning.I was so used to hearing the siren go off during the day for *practice* that when I heard it 2 nightS it took me a few minutes to realise it was the real deal. Just glad no ones big trees have fallen on our house or on the electric lines. I don't really want to be without power,but I know we could make it OK.

Prep for the worst and hope for the best.

I am sad to see so many bugs are doing well. They are ravaging my plants.