What are the Milankovitch Cycles?

Question

I've heard some tell me that:

"The Milankovitch cycles can predict future climate patterns over the long term. The changes are gradual, over thousands of years."

But What are these cycles?

Answer 1

A lot of what the first respondent said is factually correct, but the conclusions drawn from those facts as related to climate projections are wrong (especially the "woo-woo" 2012 reference). The wiki entry on this is very good and thorough, especially with regards to the projected effects of the Milankovitch cycles on climate for the next 50,000 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles

In case you're a wiki-hater, here's a NOAA website with a lot of the same climate projection information:

http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/milankovitch.html

Answer 2

Milankovitch Cycles For Kids

Answer 3

They affect eccentricity, axial tilt, and precession

Eccentricity it the ellipticity of the orbit. Or how much of an ellipse is it making. Remember Earth's orbit isn't a perfect circle, but sometimes it gets closer to being one than at other times when its a more stretched out shape. The orbit is getting closer to being a more circular pattern which is one of the reasons Earth is warming up.

Axial tilt can range from 21.5 to 24.5 degrees. Right now we are at about 23.4 degrees. The angle is decreasing which is another one of the reasons Earth is warming up.

Precession is how Earth "wobbles" on its axis. Think about how the handle of a top makes a little circle as the top spins. Earth does this too. The planet goes through one precession cycle about every 26,000 years. The next will will end approximately around 2012.

Milankovic was able to use these cycles to go back and show where there had been Ice Ages. Recently, climate scientist have give them another look, because if they can explain cooling then they can explain warming.

Answer 4

Hmm , I wonder if the climate change proponents will try to use this to say that the "pause" is being caused by this and use it as a reason to say that said pause is only temporary . I heard a report today predicting a little ice age for Europe again for the next few decades possibly . They really don't know is the bottom line