Global Warming . . . ?

[cmangle]

. . .and your thoughts are?

"A new NASA study says that Antarctica is overall accumulating ice. Still, areas of the continent, like the Antarctic Peninsula photographed above, have increased their mass loss in the last decades."

[Neddie]

Of course some areas are melting and some other areas are building up, however I believe the stage is set for an overall increase in the average temperature of the planet.

My reasons are:- From geological data gathered it has been determined that early in the history of the planet there was enormous amounts of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere, these gasses came from the thousands of active volcanoes that were in continuous eruption, spewing these gasses above the planet and forming our initial atmosphere. The earth was a very hot and humid place with all those volcanic gasses as the atmosphere forming what we now call greenhouse conditions as solar energy is trapped under the gasses.

(By way of explaining what I mean by the greenhouse effect, note what happens in your car when you leave it parked with the windows closed on a sunny day. High frequency energy from the sun enters the car strikes the interior warming it and releasing low frequency heat energy which is trapped by the glass which acts as a high pass filter.)

There was no oxygen only nitrogen in that atmosphere at that time. The temperature of the volcanic gasses and the action of the sun on those gasses caused an initial breakdown such that after many thousands, perhaps millions, of years the conditions were right for the evolution of some primitive bacteria and eventually the development of some plant life.

By photo-synthesis that plant life eventually caused the breakdown of the Carbon Dioxide into carbon for the plant and oxygen for the atmosphere. The sunlight caused the Methane to start to break down into Carbon, which was taken up by the plants and Hydrogen which was released into the Atmosphere to eventually combine with some of the Oxygen to form water.

All of this continued for millions of years till we arrived at the situation the world was in around 200 years ago.

Over the millions of years between the start of this process and the situation around 200 years ago the initial Carbon Dioxide and Methane became the current atmosphere 20% Oxygen and 80% Nitrogen (aprox) with the water forming the oceans, lakes, rivers and rain. While the plant life evolved into huge trees which eventually died and the buried Carbon from those dead tree eventually formed coal.

At the same time the later part of that was happening primitive animal life evolved initially in the oceans and in the later stages on the land and in the air. As that animal life, particularly the earliest in the oceans died, fell to the bottom of the ocean became covered in silt, broke down into complex hydrocarbons, and formed crude oil reserves.

All was well with the world the initial Carbon Dioxide and Methane in the atmosphere had become the air we breath and the water we drink together with a stack of captured carbon in the form of coal and oil.

200 years ago we started digging up this coal and burning it, to fuel the industrial revolution, around 120 years ago we started drilling for this oil and eventually burning it in motor vehicle engines.

The results of this combustion of coal and oil were that we gained much needed energy to power our evolved society, with the waste products, Carbon Dioxide, Methane and Water being spewed back into the atmosphere.

We have started the trend of setting the conditions back towards a course like the earth existed very early in time.

Many people can's see this, many deny this, but the tendency is there, and as the earth was a hot humid place early in its history, I believe that as trapped carbon is released back into the atmosphere the conditions will start to move in the direction of the early earth, ie the place is going to get hotter as the energy from the sun will once again become trapped, as it was early on.

There are many other factors at play, but I believe what I've outlined in this brief tutorial is the overriding tendency of the released greenhouse gasses to cause the solar energy to become trapped and raise the average temperature.

This will not mean that everything becomes hotter, but it will mean that more energy is trapped giving rise to more storms hotter hot days and cooler cold days as the previously stable planet starts to move into wider swings.

I'm not speaking as a lay person but a retired person with a science degree. Please forgive the oversimplification of the situation in this, but I'm not writing a paper for a Nobel Prize, just explaining this in terms that the average technical person should be able to grasp.


Fix Typo

[Onefella]

I'm not speaking as a lay person but a retired person with a science degree. Please forgive the oversimplification of the situation in this, but I'm not writing a paper for a Nobel Prize, just explaining this in terms that the average technical person should be able to grasp.

You've pretty much nailed it.

The Earth's temperature has never experienced such a rapid warming as the last 50 years.

[Thala Dan]

We have started the trend of setting the conditions back towards a course like the earth existed very early in time.

Many people can's see this, many deny this, but the tendency is there, and as the earth was a hot humid place early in its history, I believe that as trapped carbon is released back into the atmosphere the conditions will start to move in the direction of the early earth, ie the place is going to get hotter as the energy from the sun will once again become trapped, as it was early on.

A succinct explanation......but one that will ascend over many heads.

The great difficulty here is overcoming the inability, or unwillingness, of most human beings to comprehend or accept any phenomenon which has a timeline that exceeds the span of their own existence.

Those who deny our totally foreseeable, and increasingly unavoidable future, cling like drowning men to intermittent and short-term data points, and completely ignore the undeniable, inexorable trend.

The human traits of ignorance, selfishness, and greed will see to it that there is no turning back.

The die is cast.

[enf]

A succinct explanation......but one that will ascend over many heads.

The great difficulty here is overcoming the inability, or unwillingness, of most human beings to comprehend or accept any phenomenon which has a timeline that exceeds the span of their own existence.

Those who deny our totally foreseeable, and increasingly unavoidable future, cling like drowning men to intermittent and short-term data points, and completely ignore the undeniable, inexorable trend.

The human traits of ignorance, selfishness, and greed will see to it that there is no turning back.

The die is cast.

It's not just climate change that THAT little explanation refers to IMO........

[Onefella]

One thing I took away from that study is that Antarctica increases its ice mass mass from snow, and that increasing snow is a result of increasing humidity due to rising sea and air temperature. It also said that the rate of ice loss due to glacial shedding is not a linear effect. The rate is increasing every year, and was expected to overtake the gains due to snow, within the next 20 years.

It's telling that this 2015 report was quoted, while that same NASA page has many more reports, that all point to a catastrophic loss of sea and glacier ice at both poles.

[cmangle]