Global Warming - Three Questions?

Question

1. If the Ice Caps melt, will the Earth then find its natural temperature balance or will the Earth continue to heat?

2. If and I ask if... the convection remains (but altered in pattern and distribution) so that Earth does not lose water then if the same amount of water still exists on the planet then will the worst case scenario be that current population concentrations will need to locate to different locations?

3. Isn't the most major reason for Global Warming... over population and the fact that humans have no predators nor culling as other animal species do?

Answer 1

1) - The ice caps act like very large mirrors and reflect most solar radiation back into space. Without them there would be more solar radiation reaching earth and it would warm up quicker. There's also trillions of tons of methane and other greenhouse gases trapped within and below the ice caops and permafrost. This would be released if they melted and the greenhouse effect would take off like a rocket.

2) If every bit of snow and ice melted then sea levels would rise by 80.32 metres (going from memory, may not be exact figure but it's close). So basically anyone living below this level would have to move. For this to happen will take millions of years. It has happend at least 4 times in the past, most recently about 50 million years ago.

3) Basically yes. The less people there are the less demands for energy, manufactured goods, transportation and the less intensive agriculture, deforestation etc. Globally each person is responsible for an average of 5 tons of CO2 per year, there are huge differences between the least developed and the most developed nations.

Answer 2

Once the ocean began warming up, CO2 started coming out of solution and into the air, increasing GreenHouse effects and warming the ocean even more, and more CO2 comes out of solution. The ocean has many hundreds of gigatons of CO2 in solution.
The answer is that the heating promotes higher temperatures in a run-away process. Until the, raditaion, heat from the earth atmosphere equals the radiation heat from the sun on the earth.
The earth will not quite reach the temperature of Venus, because we are further away, which has an all-CO2 atmosphere, of 864 F deg. The human race will have disappeared well before then.
Much water from the oceans will evaporate and also increase Global Warming. At a high enough temperature, the atmosphere will lose water vapor, blown away by the solar wind, but not to worry, there will be no humans then.

This is basically different from any "cycles" previously seen, the temperature will only go up, with nothing to bring it down.

Answer 3

1.) I believe that evolution may have gone hand in hand with creationalism, but evolution on it's own did not occur. God, not the big bang, created life. 2 & 3) Yes, there is definately such a thing as Global Warming. Look at how many animals are dying because of it. We have never before seen polar bears drowning because they couldn't find ice to sit on, and walruses sitting on beaches because the ice caps have gone to far north for them to be able to feed properly. For those who believe this is just a "cycle", they are totally fooling themselves. Yes, the Greenhouse gas effect and warming have gone in cycles before, but scientists have determined through carbon ice testing that the levels have never been even half as high as they are now over the last 200,000 years. Even numerous scientists who just a few years ago were proclaiming that Al Gore was a fraud and global warming was a complete myth are realizing that they were wrong, and that we have to do something NOW! I was never an enviromentalist of any sort, so I am certainly not what a person would call a finatic about things, but if something doesn't change soon, we are going to be seeing some huge problems. Several countries, including Australia and (I think) Canada, have banned regular lightbulbs. Instead, they are to be replaced by the lightbulbs that are the spiral type, (they use much less electricity, and give off ALOT less gas/carbon). If we all switched to these bulbs, we would see a dent in the global warming levels. This is something affordable that everyone can do. (It actually saves you money, because even though the lightbulbs are 2 or 3 times the price of a standard lightbulb, it lasts 6 times as long. Plus, they use less electricity, so your electric bill will go down.)

Answer 4

Simply put, greenhouse gasses prevent heat from escaping the atmosphere. As they increase, the earth will continue to heat indefinitely. Think of it as insulation. The more you have the less heat that will escape. The heat comes from the sun, so there will be no shortage of that.

Second, changes in global temperatures will cause such extreme weather patterns that there will be no "weather", but instead disaster after disaster. If a significant portion of the icecaps were to break off and cause a change in ocean temperature, it could completely stop the flow of the current which circulates warm temperatures from the equator to the upper and lower hemispheres, resulting in regional or even global ice age. Much like a machine, everything works together, when one part malfunctions, the whole system fails.

No i do not belive that population is a factor, but rather the actions of the population. It is possible to inhabit the earth without destroying it.

Answer 5

1. Great question. No one knows what will happen when we get to that extreme state. The out of control heating others have talked about is one possibility. But in the past the Earth has always recovered from temperature swings, although sometimes it's taken thousands of years. So science has no firm answer.

Of course, by then a 20-30 foot rise in sea level will have bankrupted rich countries and killed (starvation) many people in poor ones. Probably not an experiment we should try.

2. You're overlooking a lot. In poor countries salt water will have killed much farmland, leading to massive death by starvation. In rich ones, so much money will have been spent to deal with relocations, rebuilding stuff we lost, and rebuilding agriculture, that a worldwide economic depression is likely.

That's not even the worst case. How about China refuses to cut emissions even though the disaster is obvious. Unlikely but possible. Desperate nations make war to make them stop. The war goes nuclear.

3. It's a factor, but not the most major one. The major one is that humans like to use energy driving big cars, living in oversized houses, and having more stuff than we can use. And doing it all as cheaply as possible, with the least effort, and without adequate concern for environmental consequences. It's finally caught up to us. Rough guess. 20% of the world's population is responsible for 90% of the greenhouse gases. The major places where population is out of control are poor countries with low emissions; rich ones tend to limit their birth rate. So overpopulation is not the main reason.

Best questions on global warming I've seen in a long time.

Answer 6

1. continue to heat. It is not the earth which is heating but the sun if I am not mistaken. Pollution has reduced the ozone layer. For this reason, more ultraviolet or ray of sun warm up the earth easily.

2. yes it could be possible but first to reduce the population would be important to some country such as China and India.

3. Over poluation is one of the major problem. In north America, we are already dumping garbages. If the other countries woul catch up to our technology, then the amount of garbage would increase. Decreasing the production of carbon dioxide is also crucial. A couple of years ago, Chinese populations used to ride bycicles. My friend went there last year to see her relatives and the amount of cars has increased exponentially...almost every person has a car. Even if humans would have a predator, some humans would still not know their mistakes.

Answer 7

no 3 is the best point you make
and believe me preditors are in the game

for years already people have been saying that overpopultalion is the root of all evil

in 1998 Kissinger said at a closed bilderberg meeting that their Agenda demanded a decrease in the world population by 60%

the mind boggles at how this can be achieved
and many strange things are happening
many babies are born infertile .or gay,because of a raise in the acidic levels of drinking water
many new diseases,cures that kill,possibly toxic consumer goods
many ¨natural ¨disasters,an posible impending nuclear war,
so there probably are some cures on the way ,if not already active

In the last 50 years world population has doubled a faster growth ever since we became homo sapian.
the effects on the environment are
,erosian,over pumping of carbon aquifiers(deep wells)
desertification,rising seas,land loss,deforrestation,watershort...
excess carbon emissions,mass extinction of species and global warming.

farmers are forced to cultivate highly erodable lands, to keep up with the growing demand for food for an extra 70 million people each year and this is increasing

each year these extra millions are washing and consuming water but this is ,but a small part of what agriculture uses.

the first thing we should do is go to town on education and birth control
most teenage pregnancies and families with many children is in very poor and uneducated regions .

may be we should bring back human sacrifice ,that would keep the gods happy and we could fertilize some of the millions of hectares that modern agriculture has destroyed with its chemicals.and with all the full moons we got during the year it would have a marked effect on the population.It would be more dignified than bombing countries

all i can add is
LOL

Answer 8

The melting of ICE caps is not due to the increase of temperatures natrually but artificially by the human being temperature are forced to INCREASE. Thats why it cannot be Balanced.

IT actually started the Population started to relocate themselves within the earth for good food, income, etc

In order to avoid global warming we can use to go by walk to a place which was within the radius of 1 to 2 KM so that there will be huge reduction in greenhouse gasses and also the traffic. Walking is good for Health.

Answer 9

if icecaps melt earth will continue to heat, even faster in fact 'cause the current ice caps reflect heat back int space 'cause they're white.

2. everyone living on the seaboard will have to move inland/up a few metres. Floodprone areas like bangladesh will halve in size. malaria and torrential rain will make many equatorial areas uninhabitable

3. dont worry the poplutaion will soon stabilise thanks to global virus pandemic or some new and very stupid war. The main reason is our irresponsibel behaviour - not our numbers as such.

Answer 10

1) Continue to heat , unless the coal fired plants are under water.

2) Pacific Islands are already going underwater and people are re-locating , also people living in the northern regions where the perma frost is collapsing are also having to relocate now .

3) Yes , and our industrial love of the coal fired plant.