Is it possible that global warming is caused by Earth's orbit?

Question

If Earth's orbit takes Earth closer to the sun then back out (which would cause ice ages), isn't it possible that this orbital pattern is causing our global warming?

Answer 1

no it is caused by an increase in carbon dioxide levels. You should watch Al Gore's Movie "an inconvenient truth" it fully explains global warming.

Answer 2

The earth orbits the sun once every year. That is the measure of a year. The distances never change. That is not the cause, obviously.

Any natural fluctuations that there may be are only magnified by the results of human activity. The changes in the atmosphere that have been quantified are changes that have taken place since the Industrial Revolution and these changes correlate to increases in human activity.

There is no scientific question anymore that global warming is due and owing to human activity.

Answer 3

Let's be careful on blaming global warming on just one control. Often in nature a particular phenomenon is the result of several forces acting synergisticaly toward a result. This is known as Chamberlain's Multiple Working Hypothesis.

Indeed, orbital geometry does have a substantial effect on the Earth's climatologic patterns. For example, right now the northern hemisphere of the planet leans toward the sun when the planet is at aphelion (furthest from the sun in its orbit). However, due to precession of the axis, some ten thousand years from now it will be pointing toward the sun at perihelion (when it is closest to the sun in its orbit). One would thus expect the summers to be warmer at that time than now since two factors will be contributing to the northern hemisphere's summer heat....axial tilt and distance from the sun.

Let us add to that plate tectonics, volcanic contributions to the atmosphere, mountain building (elevation cools), organic contributions due to respiration and digestive processes, cloud cover, solar output fluctuations, etc., etc. all working together like the straws that break the camel's back".

Answer 4

No, that is unlikely....our orbit does not vary as you describe it. There is a 100,000 year cycle to the eccentricity of our orbit (how elliptical it is) and that cycle may be related to ice ages, but it certainly does not explain the current cycle of global warming...or the Little Ice Age, or the Medieval Warm Period.

Of course, that doesn't mean humans are entirely to blame either. I'd put my money on variations in the amount of energy being released by the sun...with minor contributions from human activity.

Answer 5

Good idea, but modern astronomy can measure the the Earth's orbit VERY exactly and it isn't getting any closer now than it did 50 years ago. The Milankovitch cycles are much longer than mere hundreds of years and the warming is very recent only.

Answer 6

Absolutely, and besides our elliptical orbit, solar radiance is probably a more immediate cause of short term warming and cooling. THANK YOU FOR ASKING THIS QUESTION!! You have restored my confidence in people's ability to resist the brainwashing that has been foisted upon us by the looney left and the envirofascists that walk among us. (Just kidding, but when I hear someone spout a theory, and then get mad when we question their rationale, I try all the harder to find out exactly where they are coming from!!) Sounds like you're doing this too. GOOD!!! Keep it up, and don't keep you mouth shut about it.

Answer 7

No. That's been happening for billions of years. The Earth's orbit hasn't changed.

Answer 8

That is possible, but a more likely culprit is sunspots or other changes in solar activity. There is evidence that CO2 elevation is a result, not a cause, of global warming.

Answer 9

It might be but it might be that the sun's output has gone up .05% per decade in the last 30 years. Even the polar caps on Mars are going away.

Answer 10

No, that is not possible.

But, I have heard crazier explanations than that.