What will ultimately happen with Global Warming?

Question

Ice Age or what?

Answer 1

Can you say, "cycle"? And, no, there will be no Waterworld scenario. There is simply not enough water locked up in the polar ice caps.

In midsummer, as the sun reaches its maximum elevation of about 23.5 degrees, temperatures at the South Pole average around −25°C (−12°F).

Were the temperature at the South pole to follow the trend curve I derived for the U.S., You would have
T = - 12 + 0.002781734*t + 7.68921E-05*t^2, with t in years, and the base year being 2,006. The time required to bring the South Pole up to 32°F so that it could begin to melt, is
t = (- 0.002781734 ±√(0.002781734 + 4*44*7.68921E-05))/(2*7.68921E-05)
t = (- 0.002781734 ±√0.013540747644046756)/(2*7.68921E-05)
t = (- 0.002781734 ± 0.11636471820980256213048565512565/(2*7.68921E-05)
t = 0.11358298420980256213048565512565/(2*7.68921E-05)
t = 738.59 years, and that's at the accelerated rate determined by using a quadratic trend curve.

I tried to find max temperatures nearer the sea, but they seem elusive tonight.

Answer 2

Yes, an Ice Age will occur and the conditions are already too far along for reversal...we can only hope to reduce the impact when it does occur.
Right now the carbon levels in our atmosphere are over 630 parts per million (ppm) which is the highest in the known geologic history of the planet. This will lead to the melting of the ice caps which will add to the warming effect by reducing the amount of light that is reflected from their white surfaces.
Ultimately, the greater amount of water vapor in the air will have a reversal affect on the climate and we will plunge into an ice age. Since we are making the planet so much warmer, the reversal will also be greater.
This will not happen for a few hundred years. But for now, it is expected that Burlington, VT will have a climate similar to Virginia within 50 to 100 years. No more skiing or maple sugar. And the species of plants and animals that depend on the colder climate (sugar maples, polar bears...) will be extinct in our own lifetimes.
We don't need for legislatures to pass laws to do something about this. Turn your lights off at night, walk to the store instead of driving, carpool, spread the word.

Answer 3

Science does know that with the warming the ice caps will melt to some degree. With this happening the Gulf Stream will eventually come to a halt and then a cooling will happen and thus another ice age. By the way, this is a normal cycle of the Earth and there isn't anything we can do to stop it.

Answer 4

Like the ice age predicted in the 70's and ..oh yeah...the global food shortage of the 70's and the over population scare of the 70's..global warming will fade into history with the rest. Go ahead, call me stupid or an idiot. that's the normal attack sequence. Doesn't science always say" extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof "...where is it......global warming ranks right up there with Roswell and UFO's

Answer 5

It won't be a Hollywood style disaster movie. It won't be the end of man. But it will be very bad.

Coastal cities will flood. First in storms and then all the time. Changes in temperature and precipitation patterns will severely damage agriculture. Rich countries will cope, but it will cost them so much money their standard of living will decrease. In poor countries many (not all) people will die of starvation.

Not a flashy thing, but the biggest disaster in human history.

"extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof". The IPCC report is just that. It has enormous amounts of data. It considers all the factors, natural cycles, solar variation, volcanoes, etc.

The full IPCC report will be available in a few weeks. It will cost money, it's 1600 pages. But someone will put it up online at some point.

The IPCC report is the biggest scientific paper ever, with the most data, the most authors, and the most peer review, in the history of science. It is the very pinnacle of hard scientific research. The last paper to hold that title was the last IPCC report in 2001. You can look at that one here.

http://www.ipcc.ch/pub/online.htm

Science does not get any more solid than this.

The scientific debate is over. Global warming is real and man is responsible.

Deniers of global warming are exactly like people who say we didn't go to the moon.

Oh, people here do that.

Answer 6

Nobody knows. The interrelated natural systems are too complex for us to predict the future of the world's climate. Based on history, which is not always a good predictor of the future, I would bet on the ice age, which would be far more harmful than warming.

Answer 7

Global warming is bible prophecy. It took the creator 7 days to create (not necessarily a week in the human time frame-coulda been 7000 years).
To keep it short for the sake of time, we - the USA = present day Sodom and Gomorah God is just turning up the heat because of our wickedness an insensitivity to our inner spirit.... Prophecy states that in the day of Noah and the flood...a promise was made that God will not destroy the world by water..but by fire......get ready! get ready! get ready! For Christians... look up for your redemption draweth nigh!!

Answer 8

10 to 15 years

Answer 9

hence the name GLOBAL WARMING...i dont think an ICE AGE will happen. *cough*

you should watch the movie Waterworld. that should give you a good idea of what the world could be like when the oceans rise up and everything is covered in water...

Answer 10

ultimately, we'll all be dead so we won't care anymore.

even more ultimately than that, the sun will go nova and obliterate the planet.

even more ultimately than that, the universe will reach entropy