Climate change

[redhen]

Shhhhh! No religious topics... the Mods will come..

 

[chickened]

Shhhhh! No religious topics... the Mods will come..

You're right.

do not beg the lightning to strike.

 

[rowlow]

Which side of the argument were you on, 3 years ago?

Three years ago I think I was skeptical but tried to listen to the reason behind it. What theory that makes me wonder is that the the warming climate is the earth thawing from the last Ice Age.

 

[chickened]

Three years ago I think I was skeptical but tried to listen to the reason behind it. What theory that makes me wonder is that the the warming climate is the earth thawing from the last Ice Age.

Where were you 29 posts ago?

 

[RHRanch]

This is what I was referring to: "However, usually all variables are not 100% identical" and I would add almost always if not always.

Still makes no sense. Sorry.

- I mean I get the part about variables almost but not always being different but not how it pertains to faith.

 

[rowlow]

Where were you 29 posts ago?

I was reading other peoples posts just seeing what their theory was. I started the thread and just wanted to get other opinions.

 

[Royd]

I was reading other peoples posts just seeing what their theory was. I started the thread and just wanted to get other opinions.

From what I see in the real world, the warmists are scraping off their bumper stickers in the middle of the night and the deniers are proudly slapping an "I told you so." sticker on their vehicles.

 

[Royd]

Three years ago I think I was skeptical but tried to listen to the reason behind it. What theory that makes me wonder is that the the warming climate is the earth thawing from the last Ice Age.

Seriously, How cool could we possibly stay with 4,000 degree magma [can you say, magma?] under us and a blazing ball of fire above us. It's like putting a frozen piece of bread in a toaster.

 

[GardenerGal]

Three years ago I think I was skeptical but tried to listen to the reason behind it. What theory that makes me wonder is that the the warming climate is the earth thawing from the last Ice Age.

Hi rowlow,
I'm glad you started the thread, because even if people disagree we can still all learn something from and about each other. It's like a small diversion from talking about chickens and other poultry all the time! Though I don't get tired of that. Love my chicks, ducks 'n' geese. lol

The cycle of warming and cooling is part of the Earth's natural climatic history. Ice ages and warm ages are part of a "pendulum swing" back and forth, a feedback loop of cause and effect. The last ice age (Pleistocene) ended about 12,000 years ago, and since that time the climate has gradually warmed. However (and this is a BIG "however"), the warming trend has very noticeably accelerated -- speeded up far beyond that of previous interstitial ("in-between" ice ages) periods. We know this because drillings of core samples from various places, including Antarctica, reveal the quantities of trapped "greenhouse" gases (so called because they form a layer that causes heat to build up in the atmosphere like a glass greenhouse traps warmth from the sun) directly responsible for global hot climate. Core samples containing low amounts of greenhouse gases indicate a period of global cool climate. By comparing the core drillings that are from different periods of time, we can see the natural pattern of Earth's heating and cooling.

The amounts of greenhouse gases we're reading in the current atmosphere are far higher than they should be, compared to all of the readings from core samples from previous epochs' ice age-warm age periods. That leads researchers to wonder what is causing such a difference in rate of warming. One thing that is observable, is human activity, starting back from thousands of years ago.

Humans are the only creatures known to use fire and combustion -- which releases carbon dioxide and other gases into the atmosphere. Besides natural fires caused by lightning and spontaneous combustion of organic matter, and volcanic activity which has remained fairly constant in the past 50,000 years (which we know for a number of reasons, such as from "reading" layers of lava deposits worldwide), human use of fossil fuels and wood contributes to the buildup of greenhouse gases. When there weren't that many humans, and all they were burning was wood and dried animal dung for cooking and heating, the human contribution of gases was minimal. But now human population is in the 7 billion range, we have vast industries and motor vehicles in addition to personal cooking/heating needs, and we are consuming huge amounts of fuels, most of which are the remains of living things from hundreds of millions of years ago (oil, coal, methane and natural gas). Those fossil organics were holding carbon dioxide trapped in their matter, keeping it out of the atmosphere, but now burning those deposits that would never otherwise have seen the light of day again, is returning the CO2 back into the atmosphere at accelerated rates (think of how China is now increasing its use of oil as more and more Chinese reach the middle class and buy cars... no more bicycles for them!).

So, that is one prevailing theory for why we are witnessing very noticeable changes in global climate, whose consequences include melting of the polar ice caps and permafrost (the previously year-round frozen soils of the Arctic), leading to higher sea levels, changes in ocean currents --- which leads to changes in air thermal currents -- which leads to changes in patterns of storm and drought --- and you can see where all this is going.

If we look at it too near-sightedly -- linearly (we try to create a starting point and an ending point, like a straight line of events) -- it's a domino effect. But if we step back and look at the Big Picture, it is a dyanamic process that we are seeing only a piece of... one phase of a feedback loop that has not hit its critical point (where the pendulum will swing back... to something) yet.

 

[Royd]

Doz wascally humans. We need to do something about them.