Earth doomed to freeze!

[Geriatrix]

http://www.dailytech.com/Temperature+Monitors+Report+Worldwide+Global+Cooling/article10866.htm

Over the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded. China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snowcover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile -- the list goes on and on.

Ok, so this is confusing. IS the earth getting hotter or cooler?

 

[semiautomatix]

My personal opinion is that any sort of mass global effect is not the result of humans. We think ourselves so powerful as to create changes that have been occuring for thousands of years. Mars is going through similar climate changes to earth and it is uninhabited! We are little ants and as much as ants affect our lives so we affect the planet.

 

[Surv0]

Both - the destabalising of temperatures will result in the rapid cooling.
Ice Caps will melt, pushing incredibly cold water into warmer currents. Currents will change as they did just before the last big ice age across the northern hemisphere.
Its almost as if the earth has its own built in fail safe, if things get out of hand, just issue the next ice age - kill off most life and start again.

We are also having incredibly hot weather year after year.. so it goes both ways i spose.

 

[Surv0]

My personal opinion is that any sort of mass global effect is not the result of humans. We think ourselves so powerful as to create changes that have been occuring for thousands of years. Mars is going through similar climate changes to earth and it is uninhabited! We are little ants and as much as ants affect our lives so we affect the planet.

Except for the amounts of poisonous gas we pump daily into the atmosphere thats taken millions of years to form.
We come along and screw it up in a matter of decades.. Global warming is definately a human related issue.

 

[semiautomatix]

Except for the amounts of poisonous gas we pump daily into the atmosphere thats taken millions of years to form.
We come along and screw it up in a matter of decades.. Global warming is definately a human related issue.

Then why, year on year, is the average temperature of Mars increasing at the same rate? Or can we claim to be polluting Mars with the exhaust fumes of one or two rovers?

 

[Surv0]

Then why, year on year, is the average temperature of Mars increasing at the same rate. Or can we claim to be polluting Mars with the exhaust fumes of one or two rovers?

no idea about mars - maybe something in the atmosphere is causing heat to remain..

Global warming has been proven to be related to the greenhouse gasses us humans are pumping into the atmosphere, there is no doubt about that. Saying that its not is only denying one of our biggest F-ups as humans beings...

 

[semiautomatix]

no idea about mars - maybe something in the atmosphere is causing heat to remain..

Global warming has been proven to be related to the greenhouse gasses us humans are pumping into the atmosphere, there is no doubt about that. Saying that its not is only denying one of our biggest F-ups as humans beings...

Global warming on other planets

Mars, Jupiter, Triton, Neptune, Pluto, and others share the fate of Earth

Pluto

What's going on with Pluto? Well, yes, your guess is right. There is global warming on Pluto.

Triton

Triton is Neptune's largest Moon. Some people believe that it used to be an asteroid. Global warming was detected on Triton. Between 1989 and 1998, the temperature jumped by 5 percent on the absolute (Kelvin) scale.

In fact some people will go as far as to blame the whole thing on the theorectical branch of Hyperdimensional physics. This may not be the reason, but I see the whole global warming as being part of a much larger trend for which we are not responsible.

 

[Surv0]

As our sun dies it grows larger and will eventually absorb the earth into its own expanding mass. We would be dead long before that happens..

 

[PostmanPot]

Or can we claim to be polluting Mars with the exhaust fumes of one or two rovers?

 

[kronoSX]

earth frying now icing...what gives
you post are confusing me...Are we coming(2nd ice age)or going(great balls of fire)

 

[semiautomatix]

As our sun dies it grows larger and will eventually absorb the earth into its own expanding mass. We would be dead long before that happens..

Really? I had it scheduled for next Tuesday!

 

[HavocXphere]

Ok, so this is confusing. IS the earth getting hotter or cooler?

Average temp goes up, but thats not the problem. The increased temp screws with all kinds of thing like ocean currents, cyclones etc. A small temp increase could potential stop or reverse an ocean current. A reversed current has huge effects on the climate in the surrounding area.

If you look at this map on wiki. The map plots a 3 degree average increase. However some areas have an 8 degree increase like the amazon (El nino). The amazon forest won't survive anything close to that.

My personal opinion is that any sort of mass global effect is not the result of humans. We think ourselves so powerful as to create changes that have been occuring for thousands of years. Mars is going through similar climate changes to earth and it is uninhabited! We are little ants and as much as ants affect our lives so we affect the planet.

Temperature fluctuations are normal. The problem is the timespan. Usually a 0.5C increase is over millions of years. We've achieved a 0.74C increase in under 200 years. With such a rapid rate, few things can evolve fast enough to survive.

 

[semiautomatix]

Temperature fluctuations are normal. The problem is the timespan. Usually a 0.5C increase is over millions of years. We've achieved a 0.74C increase in under 200 years. With such a rapid rate, few things can evolve fast enough to survive.

If that were the case then why the rapid cooling of the earth during the last ice age? And then the rapid heating? Somethings don't happen gradually and certain species are unable to adapt - and then the die out.

 

[ldmelsa]

Mars is uninhabited.

nauseous_monkey must not hear about this.

 

[Ivan...]

nauseous_monkey must not hear about this.

 

[HavocXphere]

If that were the case then why the rapid cooling of the earth during the last ice age?

Ice ages are different. Ice ages tend to accelerate because the effect is reinforces itself. More ice = more sun is reflected = more ice.

And then the rapid heating?

If you look at this graph then you'll see that after the ice ages there is only a gradual increase.

Somethings don't happen gradually and certain species are unable to adapt - and then the die out.

Exactly. That is why many things died during the ice age and more things will grow extinct if the current trend continues. Only this time its (probably) manmade and it will have a massive effect on humanity due to say crop failures.

Also have a look at Milankovitch cycles.

 

[Piepalook]

Ice ages are different. Ice ages tend to accelerate because the effect is reinforces itself. More ice = more sun is reflected = more ice.


If you look at this graph then you'll see that after the ice ages there is only a gradual increase.


Exactly. That is why many things died during the ice age and more things will grow extinct if the current trend continues. Only this time its (probably) manmade and it will have a massive effect on humanity due to say crop failures.

Also have a look at Milankovitch cycles.

I agree with you.

Question: If the earth's temperature increases, and so also the oceans,would there be more cloud formation?

If so,wouldn't the additional clouds reflect heat from the sun,thereby cooling the atmosphere?

 

[Messugga]

Clouds would reflect more of the sun's energy, as does contrails from airliners(quite a fair percentage, actually), but, unfortunately, water vapor absorbs heat very efficiently and thus would contribute to the storing of secondary heat energy, which is the main problem. It's not the amount of energy from the sun that hits the earth, it's the amount of energy stopped from escaping our atmosphere and for THAT, clouds are very very very bad. The main problem is if the ocean currents stop. If the poles melt, see level will only rise by about 70m, which will hardly turn the earth into a Water-world-esque entity. Of course, the US economy would collapse and countries like the Netherlands would almost be completely wiped out by such a rise, but if Japan, a relatively small country, can support so many people, then the rest of the world should be able to cope as well.
But, with the currents stopping, which is a very real possibility, the UK, for one, would become a desert and other countries would have severe fluctuations in terms of temperature and general weather patterns. South Africa, amusingly enough, would be mostly untouched, according to models.

 

[Piepalook]

Clouds would reflect more of the sun's energy, as does contrails from airliners(quite a fair percentage, actually), but, unfortunately, water vapor absorbs heat very efficiently and thus would contribute to the storing of secondary heat energy, which is the main problem. It's not the amount of energy from the sun that hits the earth, it's the amount of energy stopped from escaping our atmosphere and for THAT, clouds are very very very bad. The main problem is if the ocean currents stop. If the poles melt, see level will only rise by about 70m, which will hardly turn the earth into a Water-world-esque entity. Of course, the US economy would collapse and countries like the Netherlands would almost be completely wiped out by such a rise, but if Japan, a relatively small country, can support so many people, then the rest of the world should be able to cope as well.
But, with the currents stopping, which is a very real possibility, the UK, for one, would become a desert and other countries would have severe fluctuations in terms of temperature and general weather patterns. South Africa, amusingly enough, would be mostly untouched, according to models.

So what you are basically saying, is that humans are in deep trouble.

 

[semiautomatix]

Ice ages are different. Ice ages tend to accelerate because the effect is reinforces itself. More ice = more sun is reflected = more ice.


If you look at this graph then you'll see that after the ice ages there is only a gradual increase.


Exactly. That is why many things died during the ice age and more things will grow extinct if the current trend continues. Only this time its (probably) manmade and it will have a massive effect on humanity due to say crop failures.

Also have a look at Milankovitch cycles.

So as such, it is not due to human intervention and is a problem that cannot be solved or be caused by the human population?