Global Warming doesn't this happen every couple of hundred years?

Question

Doesn't it go in a cycels will have global warming then we'll go into a small ice age? We see the ice caps melting who's to say they havent melted like that in the past?

Answer 1

Both the Sun and the Earth go through several different cycles, each cycle has a role to play in global warming and global cooling. The longer term cycles cause the greatest variation in our climate and these cycles span upwards of 23,000 years. The short term cycles such as sunspots have very little bearing on our climate as the difference between maximum and minimum output is tiny (less than one thousandth).

Because there's lots of cycles occuring at once over different time scales there is no regular pattern to how our climate is naturally effected. We can accurately predict what the effect of each cycle will be but when we plot a graph showing the combined effect, the graph goes up and down all over the place on a very irregular basis - because there's so many cycles interacting with each other.

Other than the ice age cycles which last about 100 million years there's no regular pattern.

What you said about the ice caps having melted in the past is true. This has happened completely 4 times in the last 542 million years (the period for which we have reliable date). It happens to a small extent every year due to seasonal variations.

What we're seeing now is something beyond the bounds of natural variation and even if every warming cycle were to occur at once (it isn't doing but assuming it did) then temperature rises and the rate of ice melting would still be far short of that which we're seeing now.

I've avoided going into detail here but if you want more info the terms to look for are Milankovitch Cycles (Obliquity, Precession, Elliptical Eccentricity and Equinoxal Eccentricity), Solar Variation, Insolation Maxima and Insolation Minima. Wikipedia will no doubt have pages for all of these.

Answer 2

Well there's deposits, like rings, that form, like in a tree. That's how you can tell how old ice is basically, it's the simplest form, that's how we can see how far back it goes. Think about it, the new ice only builds when it gets colder, not when it's hotter, that's what forms those rings. So that's how we can tell, at least that's how I remember it.

Basically if the ice had melted like that before, it would lack rings, and not be so thick. Ice takes a while to build up, like in your freezer. If you defrost your freezer all the time, the ice buildup is less, a lot less. If you just leave it, it builds up, and can cause your whole icebox to freeze over eventually. It's the same with the ice at the poles, if it had melted drastically before, it wouldn't be what it is now.

Normal cycles do happen, but not every couple hundred years. The only thing that changes every few years is volcanic activity. If a volcano erupts it sends sulphites into the upper atmosphere, causing global cooling, rapidly too(happened in the 80s as I recall). That's what can cause a little ice age.

The larger cycle now is supposed to be a cooling one, we're supposed to be heading into an ice age, instead it's gotten hotter by 1degree over 100 years, which is faster than before and in the opposite direction. It just doesn't add up basically, that's why it's considered unnatural and that's why it was studied in depth.

Answer 3

There have been several ice ages since the dawn of time and all have melted away without the Global Warming Fanatics spouting their insanity about it.
One of the reasons why weather patterns have always fluctuated and changed is because it's a naturally occurring phenomenon,always has been and always will be.
The suns solar flares have been more active than usual and might be directly responsible for the weather being unusually warmer in some areas.
Other areas of the world are still the same as usual without any change in weather of any kind.
But you can't tell them that,they'll have their panty's in a bunch in no time flat if you try and reason with them.
So hopefully one day they'll find a new more interesting topic to obsess about and Global Warming Fanatics will become a thing of the past.

Answer 4

Well, I read an answer a few days ago, "proving" the Global Warming theory. He said look at photographs of the Polar Ice Caps 50 years ago vs. today as they had shrunk. Looks good on paper.
However the Global Cooling community 30 years ago compared photos fro 60 years ago, to then and concluded that an Ice Age was in the offing, as the Caps had "Grown".
We need to do all we can to curb pollution.
How about we ask those people who have Bumper Stickers that say "Stop Global Warming" on their 8 cylinder, pollution belching, 12 mile per gallon SUV's, to drive something else, or Heaven forbid, ride a bike like some of the rest of us do?

Travis...Perhaps the Tropical World of the Dinosaur in the Cretacious Period was just was just a 88 million year "Heat Wave"?

Answer 5

yes "global warming" does go in a cycle of ice ages and warm ages, that's why there are people that still debate about whether or not Global warming is actually the result of human impact or not.

what is certain though is that we have way more co2 in the atmosphere now. How much it warms us is still unknown, for all we know anything can happen.

the ice caps have melted many times in the past, it was tropical when the dinosours were around lol.

Answer 6

WOW! I could desire to assert, you're plenty smarter than particularly some people. maximum folk will in basic terms right away have self assurance what all people tells them, yet you're first individual i comprehend to actual question something that all people says is actual. Very smart question. Now, approximately fifty something years in the past, all people advance into stressful approximately dealing with an ice age and how all and sundry is going to die and bunch of alternative nonsense. specific adequate, it on no account went into the ice age and warmed up. Ever via fact then this is been warming up fairly each 3 hundred and sixty 5 days. those days, because of this little bit of extra heat temperature, all people began to be stricken approximately international warming. they have been asserting, "The carbon dioxide from the automobiles is transforming into a green homestead result!" even however the automobiles do upload carbon dioxide to the air, it is not adequate to create a distinction in any respect! besides, all people advance into stressful approximately international warming, AND NOW this is COOLING DOWN returned! Now, of direction somebody is going to come again up with some stupid disaster like international cooling, via fact people make money for "gaining information of" those disaster'. returned on project, all that's, is a cycle. It warms up a sprint over a protracted volume of time, then cools down returned. the clarification people do no longer see those issues is they do no longer comprehend they are history! there is often going to be communicate a pair of "disaster", you in basic terms could desire to choose once you are going to have self assurance it.

Answer 7

Global Warming has been around only for a short while; its only as old as the Internet. When I was in High School the Science Dept. was pushing the idea of a new danger; another unstoppable Ice Age.

Answer 8

The earth does go in cycles, however it has never been this extreme and they have linked the amount of Co2 in the air to the earths temperature, the more Co2 the higher the temp.

So now with Co2 levels rising the temp is going through the roof and creating bigger storms, melting the arctic etc.

Answer 9

Yep global warming is inevitable BUT its not supposed to be happening this fast. Its happening about 10 times faster then it usually does and this is giving us very little time to adjust. "us" being animals, industries, humans species etc.

But its not every hundred years its every couple of THOSAND years... so we don't want to speed it up in any way what so ever.

Answer 10

Yes you are right although it is not every couple hundred years. The cycles are longer. Evidence suggests it is tied to solar storms (sun spots) which for reasons we do not know are more frequent in some periods (warmer periods) and less frequent in others (colder periods).