Notes, observations and background, giving reasons for Summary and conclusions about Global Warming and Climate change.
These notes have been a collection of thoughts over the years. Some of the following will be duplicates, mainly where I’ve had to keep going back after reading different “scientific” papers. I’m an advocate of libraries but acknowledge that printed “dead tree copies” are often eroneous and are based on “Knowledge at the time of writing”. I’m an advocate of modern WWW search engines as these can often provide a more up-to-date information but acknowledge there is a lot of BS. Sorting out the wheat from the chaff is hard because there are many “Agendas” and there are lot of “experts” that have an agenda that is paid by someone else. I tend to think that “independent research” is often more reliable, where the “big picture” thinking is involved.
I’ve been interested in the “weather” for quite a few years and have noticed that the “weather” is not the same as it was in my childhood. I am an Engineer (Mech) and Analyst, I rarely take anything at “face value” and I tend to question everything. Logic and facts are my “Modus Operandi” and I couple this with the “Big Picture” view. Hopefully this enables me to have an “unblinkered” view and an open mind. The stuff below is mainly notes and observations that have helped me to arrive at the “summary” but I’m still asking questions and trying to get answers. The biggest hurdle is the “differences” in the “Experts” “Opinions”. I’m mindful that “opinions” are not “Facts”. I’m also mindful that some people have an “agenda” and are trying to make a profit! (think Millennium Bug).
Global warming apparently started over 1 Million years ago BH ! (Before Humans). This appears to be factual. Apparently before this time the Earth land masses and oceans were mostly covered in ice (Glaciers) and the “Global Warming” caused the glaciers to melt, this in turn created the landscapes of the Earth. It isn’t clear if features like Mount Everest or the Himalayas or indeed the Andes or the Alps were already there but covered in Ice or that the melting of the glaciers created these features!
Apparently Dinosaurs were on Earth between 245 and 66 million years ago, in a time known as the Mesozoic Era and this lasted for some 180 Million years.This appears to be factual. It was millions of years before humans. The Earth at this time (apparently) had a mostly tropical climate and most of the land masses were covered in “forests” or vegetation and the oceans would have been full of algae. This may not be factual.
Our current thinking, with regard to CO2, is that “Deforestation” is largely responsible for the increase in CO2 in the atmosphere. We know that “plants” (inc Trees and Algae) absorb CO2 and give off O2 but we also know that this only happens in daylight and at night the this is reversed! It isn’t clear how we think that “vegetation / trees” lock up the CO2 and removes it from the atmosphere.
The current CO2 levels are a lot less than 1% of the atmosphere but CO2 (Carbon Emissions) is being blamed for “Global Warming”
During the Mesozoic Era (tropical / Dinosaur) period, the CO2 was (apparently) about 20% of the atmosphere, this would suggest that all this “vegetation” wasn’t “locking up” the CO2! It would also suggest that “Human Created” CO2 emissions being responsible for Global Warming are very questionable! It also begs the question “What were the ratios of the other gases” was there less Oxygen or Nitrogen? Nitrogen appears to be the most abundant gas, could the reduction in Nitrogen be the factor that causes Global Warming (when looking at ratios, if Nitrogen was reduced and Oxygen remained about the same, the “noble gases” and CO2 would need to be amended to fit the “Pie chart”.
Another interesting read about the Mesozoic Era which seems to be fairly neutral and factual.
There is a suggestion that a huge meteor impacted with the Earth and created a dust cloud that blocked the heat from the Sun and resulted in an “Ice Age”, which killed off the dinosaurs. That, as yet, has to be verified. We can take that as “we don’t know”.
There is a big difference between 66 Million years and 1 Million years ago, this suggests that the Earth had an “Ice Age” for some 65 Million years and we are still in an “Ice Age” but the Earth started warming some 1 Million years ago and we are gradually coming out of an “Ice Age”. It isn’t clear how we will know when we are no longer in an “Ice Age! An “Ice Age” is apparently when we have Ice at the polar caps, I haven’t yet found anything to define that any clearer. I haven’t yet found any suggestions to the amount / thickness / spread of Ice so maybe we are no longer in an “Ice Age” when there is no ice at the polar caps?
During this 65 Million years of an “Ice Age”, in theory “Greenhouse gases” would still have been there but not enough to cause Global Warming. That’s convenient 🙂 It is very likely that during this “Ice Age”, volcanoes would have been active. The volcanoes would have been producing “Greenhouse Gases” in abundance. Earthquakes would have still happening and the Tectonic plates would have still been “in flux”.
“Did something happen” to start the “Current Global Warming” (some 1 Million years ago) ? Maybe the “dust” settled over the Millions of years and the Earth gradually started to warm up again ?
Maybe something happened that may have caused the Earth to be nearer the Sun or maybe something happened to create “Greenhouse Gases” (GHG) that caused the Earth to start warming up! Human activity can’t be “blamed” because Humans weren’t around or weren’t around in significant numbers!
With regard to GHGs, there are other gases in the atmosphere that could be the cause of Global Warming (GW). These include Methane (CH4), Ozone (O3), Nitrous Oxide (N2O) and “Water Vapour”.
There is a suggestion that Methane (CH4) is more of a problem with regards to Global Warming and this is being blamed on “Cows”. Apparently they breathe out CH4 due to the grass they eat and as the population (of humans) has increased, so has the population of cows increased, because humans eat cows! so if we stop eating cows, the Global Warming would be reduced. Cows (in significant numbers) weren’t around some 1 Million years ago when the Global Warming started but nice try vegetarians 🙂 Another source of CH4 would be from the “waste” of humans. We all need to “defecate” and the rising number of humans means there is a lot of “Human waste”, which ultimately produces CH4 (Methane) but humans weren’t around 1 Million years ago.
Ozone or the “Hole in the Ozone layer”. A few years ago this was the bad boy and was causing GW due to the Human Pollution. It appears that the “Hole” is now closing or may have closed. It is now not seen as a problem with regards to GW! So much for the hype!
Nitrous Oxide (N2O) (Laughing Gas) Not come across negative reports (yet) to suggest an increase or anything to suggest it is responsible for GW.
Water Vapour. An increase in Water Vapour could indeed create a situation where it caused the heat from the Earth to be reflected and maybe it could block some of the heat from the Sun. As we were in an “Ice Age” 1+ Million years ago, it’s unlikely that an Excess of Water Vapour started the GW but heat from the Sun could have created a heavily laden water vapour atmosphere, which could have created GW!
Until we are 100% sure of what started the GW 1+ Million years ago, we can’t rationally do anything to slow it down. With that in mind, what “right” do Humans have to interfere with the Earths natural cycles, the Earth was here long before Humans. Humans need to adapt to the changes.
The Earth is warming and this seems to be a “natural” cyclic event, we are coming out of an “Ice Age” so the Earth is getting warmer. The Earth was formed some 4 BILLION years ago and is constantly “evolving”. The Tectonic plates are in constant flux, volcanoes are a natural event as are Earthquakes. Humans are basically parasites that have adopted the Earth as a home and humans need to adapt to the ever changing “environment”. We don’t have any “right” to interfere with “natural” cyclic events, we (humans) are “Guests” of this wonderful planet and we need to adapt to the constant changes if we are to continue to be guests on this wonderful planet.
It appears that we don’t actually know what started the Global Warming (GW) some 1 + Million years ago but we can be sure it wasn’t from “Human created Air and other pollution” because humans weren’t around at that time.
Climate change and Global Warming are very real. As guests of this wonderful planet, we need to adapt to the changes and not try to interfere with the “natural events”. Its not our place, as guests, to interfere with the Earths natural “rhythm”. We need to adapt to the constant changes of the Planet and accept that the universe is constantly changing. We need to accept that the Universe isn’t “designed” for the benefit of humans and humans have little or no control of the “natural” events of the Planet.
In the “big picture”, the Earth is just one “element”. It is a very small part of the Universe and the “natural” rhythm of the Universe is yet to be understood. If you are in the “Big Bang” camp, you will be in agreement that the universe was created by the collapse of a “Black hole” and that the Universe is “controlled” by gravity / gravitational forces. There is an acceptance that the universe expands to a limit and then gravitational forces start to cause the universe to “contract” and will ultimately result in the universe condensing to a black hole again. Gravity is a very powerful force.
Gravity causes the ebb and flow of the oceans tides, in conjunction with the Moon.
Gravity also controls the expansion and decrease of the universe.
“Time” is basically an invention of humans! With this in mind, the “Big bang” could have happened “oodles” of times. Eternity is a very long time, Billions of years is a very long time but afawk the universe doesn’t have “clocks”! Clocks are an invention of humans to try to organise our day to day lives. Clocks and Calendars are human inventions but the “universe” is “timeless”, it doesn’t have clocks or calendars.
With that in mind, what started the “Global Warming” over a Million years ago, it wasn’t humans or human activity because humans weren’t around – as far as we know! The current levels of CO2 are (apparently) less than 1% so the “greenhouse gases” thing seems to be questionable.
The late Dr David Bellamy (RIP) suggested that “Global Warming” and “Global Cooling” are “Cyclic” and Humans have little (if any) effect on this cycle. There is a lot of “evidence” to support this theory.
“Greenhouse gases” are apparently a natural product of things like volcanoes. We (currently) have about 1500 active Volcanoes spewing out “Greenhouse gases” and according to David Attenborough, Volcanoes are responsible for human and most other (carbon based) life forms. The CO2 produced is required for “carbon based life forms”! He also advises that CO2 is a “natural green house” gas that helps regulate the planets temperature but also states too much CO2 causes the planet to warm. He may well be correct and this could explain the “Tropical periods” of the Earth, where the CO2 was 20% but there’s a problem when looking at the current “less than” 1% CO2 in the atmosphere but we still have global warming!
The “Greenhouse Gases” theory suggests that these gases don’t escape the Earths Atmosphere and build up over time. Apparently the “Eco system” is fragile (according to Attenborough) but seems to have coped quite well for BILLIONS of years before humans. There is a suggestion that the “Eco System” is controlled by trees, plants etc; which absorb (lock up) CO2. Plants absorbing CO2 is factual and it is also factual that plants GIVE OFF CO2 at night. Plants also GIVE OFF Oxygen during daylight but this is reversed at night (darkness).
There is a suggestion that Volcanoes are natures way of creating “Greenhouse gases” to regulate the Earths temperature and Humans are creating these (same) gases, in abundance, which are causing “Global Warming” (according to Attenborough).
The “Global Warming” thing is a bit of a conundrum. It started over a Million years ago before humans existed and this suggests that human activity has little (or no) effect on the “Global Warming”. If “greenhouse gases” are responsible for “global warming”, what caused these gases to be produced in excess to create the “current global warming” (which started over 1 Million years ago and before humans existed). The Earths climate (with regard to Global Warming & Global Cooling) is controlled mostly by the “Natural Rhythm” of the Universe. Humans are controlled by a very small group of wealthy and greedy individuals.
We are advised that trees and algae (in the seas) absorb CO2 (during daylight) and that may be the case but a Million+ years ago the Earth was apparently covered with ice. There would not have been many (if any) trees to absorb the CO2 and its unlikely there would have been much algae in the (frozen) oceans.
It’s likely that volcanoes were still active, even when most of the land masses were covered in ice and the oceans were frozen. This would suggest that “greenhouse” gases produced by volcanoes built up because there weren’t any trees! Does this mean it has taken some 65 Million years for the gases to build up and cause global warming? Apparently during the Mesozoic Era, the CO2 levels were around 20%. The current CO2 levels are less than 1%.
Logically thinking, when most of the ice melted and our oceans thawed; the trees and algae would start to absorb and “lockup” the CO2 / Greenhouse gases and the Earth would then start to cool. This doesn’t seem to have happened, Global warming is still continuing and the ice caps at the poles are still receding. “Deforestation” is being blamed on the increase in CO2 (not being absorbed) but what about the lack of trees when the Earth was (apparently) covered in ice and there were no trees to absorb the CO2! It could be argued that the CO2 and / or Methane levels built up and were the cause of the Global Warming. It isn’t clear if “greenhouse gases” escape the Earths atmosphere or not. If they don’t escape and create “Global warming”, what happens to these gases in “Ice ages”?
In principle we are coming out of an Ice Age. It isn’t known how much the ice caps need to recede before it is considered the “End of an Ice Age” and then it (the Earth) starts cooling again.
Until we find out what caused the onset of “Global Warming” – over a Million years ago, We are “shooting in the dark”. It is possible that the “Current day” global warming is a partly due to Human created activities but why do greenhouse gases cause the planet to warm up (stop heat escaping) but yet not block the heat from the Sun?
Human activity causing global warming is looking like a bit of “not joined up thinking”. That said, we (humans) ought to be mindful of any “pollution” that we create. We can’t continue to create “pollution” and expect it to disappear. Greenhouse gases (created by humans) are probably questionable (with regard to global warming) but “Human waste” is something that we need to address. Plastic is fantastic and our lives would be a lot harder without it but we NEED to find ways to recycle it so that it doesn’t cause environmental problems .
If “Global warming” and “Global Cooling” are not due to “Greenhouse Gases” or they are only part of the equation, we need to look at other factors. As the “climate” has been changing for BILLIONS of years, it can be argued that human activities have little or no effect on climate change.
The Earth is constantly “evolving”, volcanoes are doing their stuff and some occasionally erupt and cause dust clouds and all sorts of “Air borne Pollution”. The movement of the tectonic plates is constant and the ensuing earthquakes, which create or remove land masses (above and below sea level). This (constant) movement of the tectonic plates could effect the balance of the Earth; which could affect the “orbit” of the Earth around the Sun!
Generally speaking, we have seasons that are (to some extent) predicable e.g. Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. It would appear that these “Seasons” relate to the position of the Earth, in relation to the Sun e.g. In summer we are maybe nearer the Sun and the climate is warmer.
It would seem that over the BILLIONS of years, Global Warming and Global Cooling have been occurring in a “Cyclic” fashion and without any human produced pollution.
The Earth is a wonderful place and probably has many “secrets” that we have yet to discover. I struggle to imagine “Thousands” of years, “Millions” is off the scale and “Billions” of years is like forever and is totally incomprehensible when juxtapositioned with the average human life span.
Humans have increased in numbers many fold and this creates problems in basic things like “Bio waste” (which can also contribute to the Methane created). The more humans exist, the more they need feeding and keeping warm. It is very likely that the “Eco system” of the Earth is under a great deal of stress and the (human) creation of gases like CO2 and MH4 (Methane) are not helping but until we can identify what caused the start of the current global warming some I Million years ago, we are basically “Guessing”.
The thing we know for sure is that humans were not responsible for starting the current global warming e.g coming out of an Ice age. It is possible that “Human created Greenhouse gases” are accelerating the “Natural” Global warming but until we find out what caused the start of the “Current Global Warming” (Which started some 1 Million years ago), we are out on a limb!
What evidence do we have to suggest that the Earth is warming quicker than “expected”, do we have evidence to support a linear time line or is it indeed a logarithmic event, in that the Earth warms quicker as it gets warmer.
It is debatable if the “Human created Gases” are responsible for the “Current (accelerated) Global Warming”. It is also very debatable if “Greenhouse gases” are an invention to suit some agenda and the whole “carbon footprint” thing is a hoax.
The “elephant in the room” is the big question “What caused the start of Global Warming 1+ Million years ago?” It wasn’t anything to do with humans or their activities! We don’t really have any reliable answers to that question.
The second “Elephant in the room” is “What caused the “Ice Ages?”. Too much dust in the atmosphere? Maybe the Sun needed re-stoking 🙂 Maybe there wasn’t enough Greenhouse Gases (which apparently cause Global Warming) !
I don’t have any answers, I only have questions but from everything I’ve read, cross referenced and questioned; It would appear that “Global Warming” and “Global Cooling” have occurred many times over the BILLIONS of years that the Earth has been here.
Lets look at some facts and observations!
The Earth is estimated to be 4 + billion years old, give or take a few Million years and has been subjected to “debris” from space since it formed. At one time the Earth apparently had a ring of rocks similar to Saturn; these apparently consolidated and became the Moon! This doesn’t seem to be in contention!
The climate has been changing since the Earth had an atmosphere. Some suggest this would be about 2.5 Billion years (estimate). Some define atmosphere as when the Earth had Oxygen in the atmosphere; works for me! The most common gases that we currently find in our atmosphere are :-
Nitrogen — 78 percent.
Oxygen — 21 percent.
Argon — 0.93 percent.
Carbon dioxide — 0.04 percent.
Trace amounts of neon, helium, methane, krypton and hydrogen, as well as water vapour. The above figures are from “since records” started. Is it likely that these figures would have been similar for the past 2 + Billion years ???
An increase in Carbon dioxide is apparently causing the Earth to warm up! Some suggest the increase in Methane (CH4) is responsible.
Over the Billions of years, the Earth has gone through many “climate changes” from periods of being a “tropical (not so much a) paradise” to periods of being mostly a “Glacial wasteland”. The Earth has records of these events and they can be seen by looking at “core samples”. As far as we know there were no humans around causing atmospheric or other pollution during these periods. Core samples are mainly used by Geologists to see changes in rock strata but it seems Climatologists can (apparently) make use of this information by looking at the thickness of the Ice at the poles.
The Earth was formed / created Billions of years before humans existed.
These “climate” changes appear to be cyclic and are not controlled by Humans or indeed human activity. Instead they are the result of being part of a Universe that seems to be “organised chaos”. The Moon orbits the Earth, the Earth orbits the Sun and the Sun orbits the “Galaxy” (which apparently takes 250 Million years).
We are currently coming out of an “Ice Age*” and this started a Million or so years ago. The melting of the glaciers have (apparently) shaped our landscapes but it is now mostly melting the ice caps at the poles which will probably result in rising sea levels. An “Ice Age” is defined as having ice caps at the poles and this is not my definition. With regard to the glaciers shaping our landscape, it isn’t clear if the melting of the glaciers actually created huge mountains like Everest or the Alps etc. We are led to thinking that the Earth was “flat” and that the melting of glaciers created these huge mountains and valleys. It is likely that the movement of the melting glaciers would have had some “landscaping effect” but features like the Alps and Everest etc were likely in place before being covered in ice.
Humans have apparently only been on the planet a few thousand years but there is some evidence that “humans” were on the planet as far back as 30,000 years ago (see caves MiKong Delta Vietnam.) It is possible that “Human” life has been on Earth over several periods (ignoring the caveman stuff) but we haven’t yet found any evidence (The Earth is a big place.) In the same way that Dinosaurs were wiped out, “Human” life could also have been affected in a similar way. Without losing the plot, it is also very possible that “human (or carbon based life forms from other worlds) life” has existed on the Earth many times, a lot can happen over Billions of years! I can’t imagine Millions and Billions is way over the conceivable but it’s a very long time, it’s forever compared to the average lifespan of humans! In the grand scheme of things the average human life is (currently) about 75 years and this is just a blink of the eye, so Billions of years is beyond my / our imagination.
The Earth is basically a giant Kebab, it rotates around “an imaginary axis” in front of a heat source (the Sun) and the orbit of the Earth round the Sun changes, as does the “imaginary” axis (check out “Magnetic and True North”.) When a Kebab is cooked to how you like it, you stop cooking it (by removing it from the heat source!) In the case of the Earth being cooked by the Sun, it will be nigh on impossible to stop the cooking process; hold that thought!
In principal, due to the rotation of the Earth; the bits that are in darkness should cool so we get a warming and cooling effect, which generally tends to even out. In this “Global Warming” period the cooling bit doesn’t seem to be happening so ultimately we have “Global Warming”, which (currently) started a million or so years ago. Check out “melting of glaciers” and how they formed the land that we live on. It doesn’t explain the “Ice Ages”.
The Earth has been spinning a very long time, maybe the spinning is slowing down, which would mean that the Sun is cooking it more! That would explain why we are experiencing global warming! It doesn’t explain the Ice ages!
The Earth is currently coming to an end of an “ice age” and is warming up. There is nothing that humans can do to prevent the apparent cyclic warming / cooling that has been occurring for billions of years before humans “arrived” on the planet. Lets repeat that, There is nothing that humans can do to prevent the cyclic warming / cooling that has been occurring for billions of years before humans “arrived” on the planet!
IMO, To suggest that pollution (greenhouse gases CO2 and maybe Methane) caused by human parasites is the result of “Global Warming” is verging on nonsense and doesn’t appear to involve joined up thinking!
Pollution caused by humans could have a very small contribution to the climate change e.g. the Earth warming up but other factors would likely have a bigger impact e.g.
a. the tremendous rise in the number of human bodies producing heat,
b. the tremendous rise in electrical equipment creating heat,
c. the tremendous rise in machinery (inc vehicles) that produce heat,
d. the tremendous rise in the number of jet aircraft that pump out heat big style (it seems that we have close to 10,000 Jet aircraft in the air most of the time and that is pollution); all this heat has to go somewhere!
NOTE. The current “Global warming” (the melting of glaziers) started well before humans inhabited the Earth (as far as we know).
Volcanoes produce a very significant amount of “pollution” and it seems there are over 1500 or so “active” volcanoes at any one time. Dust clouds are perhaps the biggest concern as these could cause the the heat of the Sun to be blocked and cause a cooling of the planet. Volcanoes produce a lot of hot gases even in a “dormant” state. CO2 and Methane are high on the list of gases spewing out of volcanoes. Do these gases escape the Earths atmosphere or do they build up over time and are responsible for Global Warming?
According to David Attenborough, Volcanoes are responsible for human and most other life. The CO2 produced is required for “carbon based life forms”! He also advises that CO2 is a “natural green house” gas that helps regulate the planets temperature but also states too much CO2 causes the planet to warm.
This would suggest that the “Greenhouse Gases” don’t escape the Earths Atmosphere but do block the heat from the Sun by creating a shield.
Greenhouse gases e.g. C02 (and maybe Methane CH4) are apparently stopping the heat escaping the planet (into space) and are causing global warming. These “Greenhouse gases” have apparently been produced (mainly by Volcanoes) for Billions of years and are of a benefit in helping the planet regulate its temperature.
There is a suggestion that since the onset of the “Industrial Revolution” Humans have increased these “Greenhouse gases” by burning coal and gas and this is causing an “imbalance” in the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. There is a further suggestion that if we (humans) stopped producing CO2 (and maybe Methane), the surplus “greenhouse gases” would suddenly find a way to escape our atmosphere, and the Earth would stop getting warmer 🙂
Note about CO2. Plants inc trees absorb CO2 during daylight and give off Oxygen (O2) but at night, this is reversed. This is factual.
With regard to CO2, trees are seen to be the “savior” in that they “absorb” C02 (during day light) but during glacial periods there would not have been many trees around ! The current “Global warming” started some 1 Million years ago and humans weren’t around then but Volcanoes appear to have been around since the beginning.
With regard to Methane (CH4), The increase of this gas (from Cows) is being blamed on global warming . There seems to be a suggestion that CH4 would escape the Earths atmosphere if it was reduced e.g. eat less cows!
So what started the current “Global warming” ? If it was “Greenhouse Gases” CO2 and / or CH4, It wasn’t humans or cows that produced it. We are coming out of “an ice” but we don’t seem to know why, some would say that the Global warming and Global cooling are cyclic and we don’t have enough information to “confidently” state the reasons it happens. Greenhouse gases causing Global Warming would seem to be a bit of pseudo science. However if Greenhouse gases have any validity, the increase of the gases over the past couple of hundred years could be accelerating* the “natural” Global Warming. With regard to accelerating*, how would we know? We have very little (if any) evidence of the time scale of past Global Warming / cooling events. Do we really know if the time scale is linear? If an increase in “Green house gases” cause Global Warming, what caused an increase in “Green house gases” about 1 million years ago?
If these “Greenhouse gases” don’t escape the atmosphere, they build-up and cause “Global Warming” but when we have an “Ice age”, it would seem that these “Greenhouse gases” are no longer there!
Some experts say the “waste heat” (produced by human activity) isn’t of any significance. Other experts say that “greenhouse gasses” (caused by human activity) are causing the heat to be reflected back and not escape into “outer space”. I’m not aware of any experts acknowledging the primary heat source e.g. the Sun! When we have a solar eclipse and the Earth is in shadow, we get colder, it’s darker and it’s generally not all that nice. It’s awesome to witness but without the Sun, we wouldn’t survive long. As the different “Experts” have a difference of opinion, we can take it that opinions are not facts!
The Earth has a molten core, which produces some “latent” heat! “Geothermal Energy” systems embrace this “free” heat source and this could ultimately cause a cooling of the Earths core, this wouldn’t contribute to global warming!
The seasons of the Earth (Spring, Summer, etc) don’t happen by accident, they are created by the Earths orbit round the Sun, this is predictable to some extent. The orbit changes, sometimes we are nearer the Sun and we get hotter! The activity of the Sun also plays a part e.g. solar flares. There could be other factors to consider, e.g. the amount of dust in the atmosphere (which could have some effect on Global cooling.)
During (past) ice ages, the Sun is still there but yet the Earth is colder, either someone turned the fire down or the Earth moved away from the Sun or it could be that some “natural” phenomena caused the Sun to be “blocked”. It could be that prior to ice ages, we had airborne dust etc in the atmosphere; which blocked the heat from the Sun. Whatever it was, it wasn’t due to human atmospheric pollution because humans weren’t around! In the “Tropical” ages (when the Earth was warmer,) Humans weren’t around then, so the modern day “greenhouse gases” causing global warming and climate change seems to be very questionable!
The Earths surface is about 75% water and the water that comes out of your tap is billions of years old! The oceans tend to absorb heat and we have a situation where the oceans are warming. The Earths core is apparently a molten mass, then we have the mantle and the the Earths crust. The crust is made up of “Tectonic plates” which are constantly moving: Some bump into each other, some slide under / over each other. Over the years, this constant movement of the tectonic plates creates earthquakes (and maybe Volcanoes). The “Atmospheric pollution” created by volcanoes (that erupt) exceeds by a good measure anything that humans produce over scores of years and there appears to be about 1500 active volcanoes at any one time. The Earth is constantly changing as is the climate. Global warming and Climate change have been around for Billions of years, without humans being present!
The Earth is warming, it’s coming out of an “ice age” (Ice age is defined as having Ice caps at the poles) Core samples taken from the ice at the poles and other places can show a record of the Geological changes and these could indicate changes in the Earths temperature by comparing say the thickness of the ice layers. The Earth is a wonderful place, it is constantly changing, it’s constantly giving us more information about its past. We need to understand how humans can live in harmony with this wonderful planet and its constantly changing climate.
Humans are basically parasites that are raping the planet of its resources, without giving anything back in return..
The Earth has survived and looked after itself for Billions of years, it is currently coming out of an ice age. What right do we human parasites have to attempt to stop this happening? We can’t stop Earthquakes or Volcanoes and we certainly can’t stop the tectonic plates from moving. The only way to stop “global warming” is to interfere with “nature”. Global warming and global cooling have occurred many times over Billions of years, without any “Human created greenhouse gases” so it’s very likely that the greenhouse gases thing only plays a very small part, if any, in the global warming thing.
Climate change is natural and is not something that humans can control, we need to work out how to live with it. We certainly can’t stop it by fannying around with air pollution. King Canute discovered he couldn’t stop the tide coming in!
After considering all the above “facts” (and there may be many more), the following is mainly my opinions; based on observation and reality over 3 score years and a few!
The “current” Global warming started a Million or so years ago, well before humans were even around. This would suggest that “Human Activity” is not a major factor in “Global Warming”.
Human parasite activity could have some indirect effect on climate change. This could “potentially” be due to humans digging huge holes in the Earths crust (to extract ore) and / or creating huge “man made lakes” or extracting coal / gas / oil etc from the Earth; all of these activities could be affecting the “balance” of the Earth (think car wheel balancing.) If the Earth is out of balance, it could affect the orbit and could even cause earthquakes and volcanoes (due to the Earth trying to “keep the balance” by adjusting the tectonic plates) but the mass of the Earth is enormous and it’s likely that the human activities above would have little or no real effect but it’s worth keeping in mind, when considering the big picture!
With regard to “recent” times It’s maybe only in the past 100 to 200 years that humans have been causing airborne pollution to any great degree. Until coal was discovered, our main source of fuel (and housing material) was wood but due to the increase in humans, the use of wood became a problem due to the shortage. Burning coal and peat became the primary source of fuel. The pollution from humans has mainly been happening from around the “Industrial revolution” and this is apparently causing “greenhouse gases” to accumulate in the upper atmosphere; which is apparently causing the Earth to reflect the heat and cause global warming. Why don’t these gases escape into space! C02, Methane, Ozone and all the other “gasses” have been around a long time before humans inhabited the Earth. It is likely that these gases don’t actually escape the Earths atmosphere maybe due to gravity. Instead they remain there floating above our heads. If these gases don’t escape into outer space, Its likely that these gases would still remain, even if we had zero pollution. The “Greenhouse gases” either escape the atmosphere and pollute “space” or they remain contained in the Earths atmosphere and will still be there if we could have zero pollution!
If the CO2 is on the increase, how does this effect the % make up of the other gases (which are more abundant)? Are the other gases reducing e.g is the amount of Nitrogen, Oxygen and Argon reducing to allow for the CO2 to increase? If not, we will end up with more than 100% !
“Pollution” comes in many forms. Some experts bang on about Carbon and CO2 emissions and others claim that Methane (CH4) is more of a problem. Methane is produced from many (natural) sources but the largest methane producers are apparently Cows, that exhale Methane so reducing the amount of meat we eat would reduce the amount of cows we need to feed us! Humans are meat eaters and the populations have increased dramatically, so we need more cows to eat! Methods of feeding cows are now being looked at and the Methane produced by cows can be reduced considerably but if the Methane and / or CO2 isn’t escaping the atmosphere, we are not solving the problem ! The solution would be to find ways to “capture” these “greenhouse gases” and neutralise their effect !
The “Hole in the Ozone Layer” has been blamed for climate change but this “hole” is now closing and it isn’t as a result of human activity. The Earth has looked after itself for billions of years, it has survived being pounded with debris from space. Some have suggested that large meteors pounding the Earth were the result of dust clouds that wiped out the dinosaurs!
Atmospheric and other pollution caused by humans still ought to be reduced considerably or indeed prevented but mainly in the interests of Human, animal and plant life. We need to stop raping the planet of its resources where we give nothing in return, we need to work with nature but that won’t really have much effect on the Global Warming because it was happening before humans.
Back track a little, the climate has been changing for Billions of years and without any help from humans!
The current “experts” appear to be doing a “Chicken Licken” job of scaremongering, 12 years to do something about climate change! If they really are “experts”, they will be taking into account the “big picture” but it seems “experts” have blinkered vision and don’t really take into account the “big picture“. Maybe the “experts” are trying to make a few quid, think “Millennium bug”! The Millennium bug was basically nothing more than a line of code that didn’t allow for a date beyond 1999. Some would say that it was just sloppy coding. A lot of people working in IT at the time made a fair bit of money “curing the bug” (rectifying sloppy coding). Most of the “work” involved using automated search routines to change the code, it certainly wasn’t the sensational “world changing” event portrayed by the MSM (Main Stream Media).
Maybe we could construct parasols in space to reduce the heat from the Sun. Maybe we could find a way to alter the orbit of the Earth to make it further away from the Sun, might be a bit dodgy; we could cause another ice age 😉
Maybe we could produce “greenhouse gases” to create a Sun shield to reduce the heating effect of the Sun but that might cause the heat generated by humans to be reflected back. Maybe we can find a way to reduce the heat created by humans and their “machines”, Heat is Energy and Energy can not be destroyed!
Greenhouse gases. ( ignoring the fact that the planet has gone through many “climate changes” over some 4 Billion years before Humans started creating atmospheric pollution) Apparently, without the greenhouse gases being produced; any build up of heat on the planet would be dissipated into “outer space” so if we stop polluting the atmosphere, the planet will stop warming up! Based on history, that just doesn’t hold water!
On the other hand, if we got rid of the “greenhouse gases”; we would be subject to the full effect of heat from the Sun, which would cause global warming! Apparently “Green house” gases help regulate the Earths temperature. Rock, hard place, springs to mind.
Maybe the “greenhouse gases” thing is a bit of a “joke”! It does beg the question “why don’t these greenhouse gases escape into outer space?” and “Why do these greenhouse gases keep the heat in but still allow the heat from the Sun to pass through?”
With regard to pollution, our biggest challenge would appear to be “plastic waste” (which doesn’t directly affect climate change.) Plastic is fantastic, without it our lives would be harder. We just need to make sure that people dispose of plastic by way of recycling it. Plastic is not the enemy, the enemy are the people who don’t dispose of it correctly or more likely the people who are paid to recycle it and then dump it in the sea!
In conclusion, climate change is very real and is constant. It is happening without any human intervention. The Earth is coming out of an ice age and will continue to warm up due to the natural cycle. It isn’t clear what determines the end of an ice age, maybe it is when there is no ice on the polar caps? Global warming started some 1 million years ago and the melting of the Glaciers have apparently shaped our landscapes.
We can fight “nature” or we can accept that we need to adjust to live with rising sea levels, being warmer and maybe living in higher ground above sea levels. We need to accept that rising sea levels could also be due to the land mass(s) sinking due to tectonic plate activity. A good example of this is in the MiKong Delta – Vietnam; all those “islands” or sticky out rock formations were at some time subterranean and other areas have sunk – giving the impression of rising sea levels.
With regards to fighting nature; We can try to affect the orbit of the Earth so that its further away from the Sun and risk making things worse or we can create some sort of shade in space to delay the warming (from the Sun) process. We could maybe find a way to modify the greenhouse gases so that heat escapes into outer space and maybe reduces the effect of heat from the Sun. If the gases escape into space, would they accumulate somewhere in space and cause problems at a later date?
It would appear that greenhouse gases are natural and help stabilise the Earths temperature. Without them, the Earth would be a lot cooler (in the minus figures) but CO2 and Methane are only a fraction of a percentage of the make up of the total gases in our atmosphere. The level of Methane has (apparently) increased a lot more than the levels of CO2. It seems that the level of CO2 in the atmosphere was in the region of 20% during our “Tropical age(s)” and humans weren’t around then.
Humans are engineers and scientists, If “Green house Gases” are causing Global Warming, we need to invent devices that collect the gases, in the same way or better than trees and plants and then lock up these gases in a safe way. However, we need to be mindful of the fact that Global Warming started well before humans existed!
If “global warming” was due to “Human atmospheric pollution” creating “greenhouse gases” then reducing these (human produced) gases to zero would not make the existing gases disappear (or escape the atmosphere)! These “gases” either escape the atmosphere and pollute “outer space”, in which case they are not responsible for Global Warming. Or these gases don’t escape and build up, which is apparently causing global warming; reducing the (Human produced) “Green house gases” would not remove the existing build up of “Green house gases”. Apparently the solution to this is to plant more trees, that are known to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. Its not clear how tall the trees would have to be to “cleanse the atmosphere” but it sounds good.
These gases (CO2 and / or CH4) have been around a lot longer than humans are not “produced” by humans but human activity releases these gases, which would apparently be “locked up” in say trees and Fossil fuels. Methane (CH4) on the other hand is produced by cows eating grass so maybe Methane (which isn’t escaping the planet) is more of a problem than CO2?
We need to look at the big picture but in the main, we need to work / live with “nature”. The Earth doesn’t give a fig about human parasites and will probably carry on looking after itself regardless, with or without humans. The Earth belongs to no one, it doesn’t have a sales office. This means no one has any legitimate claim to land ownership but that’s another issue ! 🙂
Humans have survived on this wonderful planet mainly because we are good at procreation, unfortunately we seem to have over populated the planet! We are also “tool makers” and many of us are Engineers and Scientists that have created magnificent structures and machines that have benefited humans as a whole. Unfortunately we have a minority who are lazy and greedy that make use of greed and corruption to make sure they benefit (profit) from doing nothing to benefit other humans. They are not Engineers or Scientists or even tool makers; they are parasites that feed off productive humans.
We can’t really do much to stop the apparent cyclic “Climate Change” but there is much we can do to adapt to things like rising sea levels. There is a lot we can do to reduce and / or prevent plastic pollution. There is a lot we can do to get us over the “Nuclear threshold”. We need to embrace Nuclear power and allow our Engineers and Scientists to make Nuclear power a safe and reliable option. We need to stop being afraid of Nuclear power and embrace its potential. Nuclear power can become a “clean” non polluting energy source that would enable humans to live in a world that is not affected greatly by “Climate Change”.
The Earth is getting warmer and we can’t stop it. We have to adapt to survive! Humans, Plants and animals that don’t adapt become extinct.
We need to respect this wonderful planet and try to live in harmony with it. We need to stop producing airborne pollution, even if this only benefits humans, plants and animals. We need to accept that the planet is constantly changing with regard to “landscape”, we can’t stop the movement of the tectonic plates and we can’t stop earthquakes or indeed stop volcanoes being active or indeed erupting. We need to accept that the Tides will ebb and flow due to gravity and this cannot be controlled by humans. We need to accept that climate change and global warming are natural cycles that have occurred many times over the Billions of years and that human activity only plays a very small part, if any!
Plants and animals appear to “fit in” with the Earths natural “rhythms”, Humans need to do the same and stop polluting the planet. It’s likely that it won’t affect “climate change” but it will benefit us all.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_dioxide_in_Earth%27s_atmosphere
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenhouse_gas