Isn't global warming just a cycle? Soon the world will be hot and then there will be another ice age.?

Answer 1

Nope.

Climatologists know all about cycles. They are generally caused by the Sun.

But the Sun is in a pretty stable state right now.

The data proves that this particular warming is caused mostly by man made greenhouse gases.

Which is why 99+% of scientists say it is mostly us.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_opinion_on_climate_change
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/306/5702/1686

This is science. Data trumps "logical arguments". Here's a guy who knows his data.

"I wasn’t convinced by a person or any interest group—it was the data that got me. I was utterly convinced of this connection between the burning of fossil fuels and climate change. And I was convinced that if we didn’t do something about this, we would be in deep trouble.”

Vice Admiral Richard H. Truly, USN (Ret.)
Former NASA Administrator, Shuttle Astronaut and the first Commander of the Naval Space Command

Here are two summaries of the mountain of peer reviewed data that convinced Admiral Truly and the vast majority of the scientific community, short and long.

http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Image:Climate_Change_Attribution.png
http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM2feb07.pdf

The bottom line (here "quantitative" means based on numerical data):

"There's a better scientific consensus on this [climate change] than on any issue I know... Global warming is almost a no-brainer at this point. You really can't find intelligent, quantitative arguments to make it go away."

Dr. Jerry Mahlman, NOAA

Good websites for more info:

http://profend.com/global-warming/
http://environment.newscientist.com/channel/earth/dn11462
http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science/
http://www.realclimate.org
"climate science from climate scientists"

Answer 2

It gets a bit complictaed because there are all sorts of cycles interacting with one another. We're currently in a natural warming cycle which is a very small part of a much longer cooling cycle, this one having been ongoing for a little over 50 million years. There are additional levels of cycles to condtend with.

All these warming and cooling cycles are caused by yet more cycles that the Sun and Earth go through, some of which lead to cooling and some to warming. Currently our position within these cycles is giving rise to a slow net warming effect.

If the climate had been left to it's own devices we would soon (in geological terms) see a return to cooling which would last about 60,000 years, there would be a whole series of warming and cooling cycles but the long term trend would be one of cooling. At some point in the next 20 million years the long term trend would switch to a warming one.

Naturally the planet is in a warming phase but what's beyond the capabilities of any natural cycle is the rate at which it's warming - many, many times faster than could be attributed to natural cycles.

Answer 3

I read an article once in a science journal. It was about how during history, climate change on a global scale has been caused by organisms. The two examples that I can think of were a purplish bacteria that once existed all over the planet, and trees.

When the bacteria existed, they lived without an adequate system of checks and balances. They produced alot of greenhouse gasses simply by living (carbon and methane I think) and because there was nothing to eat them and not enough plants existed at the time, the planet eventually got so hot that they all died off. Eventually, the earth balanced itself out.

Then evolution took a few more steps and trees developed. Once again, without anything in existence that could slow their spreading, trees spread and covered much of the globe. They pulled so much CO2 from the atmosphere that there was massive global cooling. Lots of trees died off, and once again the earth found balance.

My point is that a cycle is a poor term to use when talking about the earth. Sure there are similarities now as in the past, and some processes of the earth are pretty steady patterns. However, the point of the article and the point I'm making is don't for one second think that creatures living within an environment cannot make changes to that environment. With enough creatures, changes can be made on a global scale.

Answer 4

Correct. Climatic cycles are just, cycles.

Here is truth about global warming:

Global warming is one-half of the climatic cycle of warming and cooling.
The earth's mean temperature cycles around the freezing point of water.
This is a completely natural phenomenon which has been going on since there has been water on this planet. It is driven by the sun.
Our planet is currently emerging from a 'mini ice age', so is
becoming warmer and may return to the point at which Greenland is again usable as farmland (as it has been in recorded history).
As the polar ice caps decrease, the amount of fresh water mixing with oceanic water will slow and perhaps stop the thermohaline cycle (the oceanic heat 'conveyor' which, among other things, keeps the U.S. east coast warm).
When this cycle slows/stops, the planet will cool again and begin to enter another ice age.

It's been happening for millions of years.

The worrisome and brutal predictions of drastic climate effects are based on computer models, NOT CLIMATE HISTORY.
As you probably know, computer models are not the most reliable of sources, especially when used to 'predict' chaotic systems such as weather.

Global warming/cooling, AKA 'climate change':
Humans did not cause it.
Humans cannot stop it.

Answer 5

Yes, but Carbon dioxide variations over the last 400,000 years, showing a rise since the industrial revolution.

According to a 2006 United Nations report, livestock is responsible for 18% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalents. This however includes land usage change, meaning deforestation in order to create grazing land. In the Amazon, 70% of deforestation is to make way for grazing land, so this is the major factor in the 2006 UN FAO report, which was the first agricultural report to include land usage change into the radiative forcing of livestock. In addition to CO2 emissions, livestock produces 65% of human-induced nitrous oxide (which has 296 times the global warming potential of CO2) and 37% of human-induced methane (which has 23 times the global warming potential of CO2)[7].

Answer 6

The earth has gone through ice ages many times in the past, but man has caused it to depart from the normal cycle. It is hotter now than before due to burning fossil fuels and larger populations of animals which produce nitrous oxide. Both should be reduced to make the earth safe for future generations.

Answer 7

your take on global warming is really interesting. I never thought of it that way but yeah, I guess that could happen.wouldn't it really suck though if global warming got to the point where our whole planet was under water and then decided to go into an ice age?

Answer 8

Yes it is just a cycle, even the climate scientists who support AGW, can only truthfully call it, Human Sustained Warming, because even they believe that the warming was started by the sun. The sun caused it to be warmer during the medieval warm period than it currently is.

http://biocab.org/Global_Warmings_and_Coolings_Since_Medieval_Age.jpg

The Sun caused the mid 20th century cooling, as well as the current warm spell.

Figure 1)
http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/~wsoon/miscAug06-d/Soon05-SolarArcticTempGRLfinal.pdf

The evidence is overwhelming that is a cycle, unless you believe that computer games are reality.

Answer 9

Common sense would tell you that, yes, the warming cycle the earth is going through is just one of the many cycles the earth has previously gone through and will go through in the future. Yeah, there will be another ice age but unfortunatly, Al Gore will be dead by then so no one can gloat in his face about what a lie global warming is.

Answer 10

Yes this is just a natural cycle. Refer to the graph of the Vostok ice cores.

This ice is able to provide us with temperature data going back 500,000 years. You will see that there is nothing different now then what has happened many, many times in the past.

Yes, in time there will be another ice age, and we will be told that we should be driving big gas guzzling SUV's to help the environment.