Just curious. I really would like to know. Was it when the dinosaurs were around? or maybe even during the Ice Age?
2007-07-09 09:43:06 · 7 answers · asked by ANDREW L 3 in Environment ➔ Global Warming
the ideal temperature for the earth is what ever it is, as set by it's self. man has no clue what the best temperature for earth is
2007-07-09 11:21:46 · answer #1 · answered by darrell m 5 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Of course there is no "optimal temperature".
But, our modern society with massive coastal development and intensive agriculture, is very sensitive to even small temperature changes. Most scientists think a relatively stable climate over the last several thousand years is what allowed man to emerge as the dominant species.
A couple of degrees increase in the next hundred years won't kill us all, but it will cost us a huge amount of money, dealing with coastal flooding and damage to agriculture. The resulting Depression will make the 1930s look like good times.
So we do have a problem, detailed here:
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL052735320070407
http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM6avr07.pdf
And a solution, detailed here:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,481085,00.html
http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM040507.pdf
2007-07-09 16:57:55 · answer #2 · answered by Bob 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
There is a median temperature for the earth, which is very stable, until some sort of disaster drives it down.
That temperature is much higher than the current average.
We are much closer to the bottom of the spectrum.
Check out the chart in the middle of the page of my source.
Notice that one of the disasters drove the temperature down but it never got as low as it is right now.
The Global Warmth charts, which are accurate, will all fit on the last quarter to half inch of this, equally accurate chart.
Accuracy and honesty are not always the same thing.
2007-07-09 18:33:14 · answer #3 · answered by Victor S 5 · 1⤊ 2⤋
There is no single optimal temperature, because optimally earth has many different temperatures and many different climates.
But the optimal climate is any climate in which the net of all anthropogenic forcings is zero.
2007-07-10 01:19:27 · answer #4 · answered by Keith P 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There Is no "optimal" temperature.
If the temperature changes, life changes.
Change isn't bad.
2007-07-09 17:50:51 · answer #5 · answered by Ha! Invisible! 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It depends on what the dominate species is. Maybe the next dominate species (after man is gone) will be OK with global warming.
2007-07-09 19:20:18 · answer #6 · answered by jdkilp 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
The people in Canada want it warmer.
The people in the Sahara want it cooler.
2007-07-09 16:47:30 · answer #7 · answered by areallthenamestaken 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋