Mainly for worrysome environmentalists: Would the Milankovitch cycle account for global warming?

Question

Would the Milankovitch cycle account for the changes we are seeing on this planet and are now attributed to global warming caused by mans impact on this planet? What if the warming we are experiencing (and thus elevated sea levels, etc) are all part of a natural cycle that repeats itself every few hundered thousand years? Hans anyone considered this yet and if so why is everyone worrying about it as (a worry for our way of life it may be) no one can really do anything about it even if we did massively redesign our lifestyles and culture?

Answer 1

Heaven for bid! I agree with you actually. Weather is cyclical. Nothing is happening that hasn't happened before. The last cycle was from the mid 1300's to the mid 1800's.

Answer 2

They explain long term trends. Shorter term trends are caused by a myriad of other factors. Bacheous is incorrect if he assumes that short term trends such as that related to warming since the Little Ice Age for the last 300 years, is related to to Milankovitch cycles. Perhaps the general cooling for the last 6000 years is but that isn't relavant to the more recent cooling and warming IMO.

Answer 3

"In addition to changes in energy from the sun itself, the Earth's position and orientation relative to the sun (our orbit) also varies slightly, thereby bringing us closer and further away from the sun in predictable cycles (called Milankovitch cycles). Variations in these cycles are believed to be the cause of Earth's ice-ages (glacials). Particularly important for the development of glacials is the radiation receipt at high northern latitudes. Diminishing radiation at these latitudes during the summer months would have enabled winter snow and ice cover to persist throughout the year, eventually leading to a permanent snow- or icepack. While Milankovitch cycles have tremendous value as a theory to explain ice-ages and long-term changes in the climate, they are unlikely to have very much impact on the decade-century timescale. Over several centuries, it may be possible to observe the effect of these orbital parameters, however for the prediction of climate change in the 21st century, these changes will be far less important than radiative forcing from greenhouse gases."

Ref http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/globalwarming.html#Q10

Answer 4

The concensus view is that the current global warming is a result of human activity.

The timescale of the effects (mainly in the last decade) does not correspond with the 100,000 years or 41,000 years for the eccentricity in the earth orbit or axis tilt.

The opponents to the current concensus are mainly from the gas guzzling culture with a vested interest in maintaing the status quo.

Answer 5

some of the warming is a result of a cycle and we can see that from glacier samples, but the trend in warming has been DRAMATICALLY increased by our actions. our output of gases such as CO2 trap the heat and so on...the ice is melting faster then anyone thought, so you can see great changes from one year to the next. and a year isnt that long...not compared to the 4.6 billion years the earth has lived. so just imagine the impact we'll have on the climate in a couple of decades...the animals are going extinct (eg polar bears cos they cant hunt due to the melting of the ice) and sea levels are rising leading to cities (eg. parts of england i heard even london potentially) becoming completely covered. also the extreme weather patterns you're seeing...yeah do some research its really alarming

Answer 6

No. If predictions of significant warming in 100 years are true, that would be far to fast to be caused by Milankovitch cycles.

Answer 7

maybe