How did we warm up after the ice age ?

Question

There were no cars or power plants, right after the ice age ! How did we get warmed up at that time without burning any fossil fuel ?

Answer 1

The majority of the warming that makes up the current warming phase was what brought about the end of the ice age. 18,000 years ago the world was 9 degrees C colder than it is today, for the next 7,500 years temperatures rose by 8 degrees and this was enough to bring about a glacial retreat. For the next 10,000 years temperatures hardly changed at all. In the last 100 years or so the world has begun to warm again but at a very rapid rate.

Ice ages have repeatedly come and gone - there have been at least 4 complete cycles in the last 542 million years and these have been brought about by changes in the heat output from the sun and changes in the way the earth rotates (for specific details do a search for Solar Variation and Milankovitch Cycles).

Natural changes occur over very long periods of time. We're actually still in an ice age and will be until all the ice melts. Earth has been in this ice age for the last 50 million years, the last time the world was free of ice was about the time of the dinosoars.

There always have been and almost certainly always will be natural warming and cooling cycles.

Answer 2

You got the question wrong, it should read "How did we cool down for the Ice Ages?" You see, glaciation is a very rare event in the Earth's history. There is little to no evidence of it, even at the polar regions. At the end of the Wisconsonian Stage of the Pleistocene Epoch, about 11,000 years ago, there was two miles of ice on top of Wisconsin. Since Geoscientists don't know what started that glaciation, they can't explain why it disappeared. I'm sorry I couldn't answer that question for you, but the fact is that Science doesn't have an answer.

Answer 3

There have been natural warming and cooling events in the past.

But the scientific data shows clearly that the present warming is mostly caused by us.

Short version:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Climate_Change_Attribution.png

The best summary of the data:

http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM2feb07.pdf

The data is why scientists know it's mostly us and not the sun, volcanoes, etc. The data is why the vast majority of scientists think it's real. Proof.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/306/5702/1686

More info (not from the liberal media):

"While evidence suggests fluctuations in solar activity can affect climate on Earth, and that it has done so in the past, the majority of climate scientists and astrophysicists agree that the sun is not to blame for the current and historically sudden uptick in global temperatures on Earth, which seems to be mostly a mess created by our own species."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,258342,00.html

Answer 4

Variations in Earth's orbit called Milankovic cycles caused Earth's temperature to heat up a bit, which in turn caused carbon dioxide to be released into the air due to higher rates of evaporation over the oceans. The increased amount of CO2 in the atmosphere caused the majority of the warming.

We aren't in a Milankovic cycle right now, so most or all of the current warming trend is due to CO2 emissions.

Answer 5

We are still warming up from the Ice Age. We live in a solar system (get it S-0-L-A-R system). and things tend to warm up and cool down under solar conditions.

Answer 6

ha ha. i take it you are asking facetiously, otherwise you are very dim. The earth heats and cools on its own. It does things that we, as simple, unevolved species, can't quite understand, for reasons we cant understand. the globe is warming, but i think it is very high and mighty of us to think that we have any impact on this huge rock spinning around the sun.

Answer 7

It just happens, despite what Goron says.

Answer 8

LETS TAKE THIS SLOWLY, A LOT OF PEOPLE TOOK OF THEIRE PANTS TOGETHER AND UNITED. THATS HOW.