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A Hypothesis Concerning Contradictions of Warming Vs Freezing
Global warming or chilling is a complex affair that is not so easily interpreted unless one has all the facts
Two schools are currently in conflict as to the direction the Earth's climate is going, a hothouse or a frozen hell. According to some, the long cycle of climate should be heading us into an prolonged ice age. Yet both ice caps are melting down and both are in danger of full collapse. The evidence is unmistakeable if one take a hard look at the world's glaciers and poles. The argument is that the current warming is either a figment of the imagination of global warming fanatics, or a temporary glitch, such as often happens in longer cycles. On the other side, we see weird weather that sees melting permafrost and lengthening growing seasons with extremes in precipitation all over the planet. Given the foregoing, can we afford to gamble the future, while we argue pros and cons?
While we ramp up the prodcution of carbon and other greenhouse gasses, we are also adding a lot of soot, nitrous oxide and dust. This contributes to global warming, but it is masked by the dust by 2 to 24 percent depending on whether you live in remote outback or in an major industrial centre in America, Europe, China or India. All the soot, nitrous oxide and dust eventually ends up in all the ice fields world around. When the accumulation is sufficient, it captures sunlight, converting it to heat and melts the ice. Everyone knows that dirt on snow will speed up initial melting even in cold temperatures until the dirt concentrates and acts as a blanket. In nature this occurs with volcanic explosions and/or forest fires. This however is aperiodic and the next years snow covers the heat trapping material. With human input it is constant, so annual snows have no effect.
The sunlight, even in a weakened form, will then heat the accumulated soot and dust, speeding the melting of the ice. This will occur whether we are in a warming or cooling cycle. The geologic record shows many temporary events. Lately people have been adding a constant and increasing supply of dirt to the ice and melting speeds up. Ice age or hothouse, the result is the same. If we remove the global dimming factor, then the real extent of global warming will become apparent. For this to occur, all industry would have to stop.
Seeking New Ways to Store Sunlight
- BBC News - Converting solar energy into new fuels
Researchers in Glasgow are working on a way to remove greenhouse gas from the atmosphere and put oil back under the North Sea.
On Global Warming: Dealing with the Nay Sayers
There are those who say that human caused global warming is an illusion, but is it? The evidence suggests the contrary. In any area of controversy, there are two sides to the question, even if the inquiry is scientific in nature. Science is divided into two camps; those that support the manmade global warming influence and those who propose that it is entirely nature based with no or little human impact. Those who say there is no global warming base their theses on the following ideas
- The sun is cooling so the mean temperature fluctuates accordingly just like in the Maunder and Spoorer Minima.
- As the sun cools, gamma rays penetrate from deep space and create cooling clouds on earth, which then allows ice buildup. We can create this effect in cloud chambers.
- Due to something called the Milanokovich cycle, the northern and southern hemispheres endure ice ages separately and in opposing phases. When the north is in an ice age, the south is in a warm period and visa versa.
- Current heating is due to the current solar warm cycle and orbital dynamics of the Earth.
Let us look at each in turn.
Although it is true that the current solar cycle is building up to a sun spot maximum as expected and thus may be acting as a trigger for a new ice-age; it is not true that ice is building up. In fact, during this solar cooling, both poles are undergoing massive ice shelf collapse and meltdown. There is ample footage from overhead satellites to prove this and also the fact that glaciers world wide are in retreat. Some of this retreat has been filmed with year long time lapse photography. Ocean levels are rising as well and new information suggests a complete melt of Arctic ice in five years. These measurements have been going on now for two decades at least, or through two complete solar cycles. Yet in this same period, the eleven hottest years in the history of global temperatures were recorded. Many people have noticed confusion in the seasons with summer lengths increasing. Conversely, they are also cooling, at least in wet regions. Dry regions experience increasing heat and dryness. The recent severe winter of 2011-12 in the UK and Russia seem to suggest that there is no problem, but in the other extreme, there is unusally warm winter weather in the Pacific northwest. Feb. 7Th, 2012 saw recorded temperatures of 61 degrees F. What we are seeing is a scrambling or weather patterns.
At least one theorist has made a case that extra solar gamma rays create clouding and cooling on the Earth as clouds reflect more sunlight. This is a controversial idea. As oceans heat up, more water evaporates and then condenses into fog banks and clouds. This occurs over the oceans and where ever winds carry moisture laden air up mountains causing rain. The theorist also agrees that ice ages will occur back and forth between poles due to Earth's orbital changes. However, other members of the scientific community do not accept the gamma cloud creation idea.
It is acknowledged that Earth's orbit does change. This first came to light in the changes in the orbit of Mercury that were detected early in the 20th century and were used to prove some of Einstein's ideas of general relativity. Later observation confirmed this for the rest of the solar system including the Earth. The changes follow three principle cycles of 22,000 years, 40,000 years and 100,000 years, known as the Milanokovich cycles. All of these cycles have been matched to cycles in the ice cores and deep sea sediment cores. According to ice core samples, we should be heading into an ice age with an eventual freeze up of the northern hemisphere, covering much of the landmass in the northern half of the Earth and lowering the sea levels. What we are seeing instead is ice and glacial retreat in both hemispheres simultaneously, demonstrating that something else is at work. In addition, sea levels are rising and this is dramatically desecrated with the increasing disappearance of the Maldives and islands in the Pacific Ocean. The only fresh input during this period is the output of the industrial revolution of the last two centuries. This has added greenhouse gasses that could account for the anomaly. In a period where theoretically there should be global freezing, we see the opposite and its accumulating results.
Earth has an eccentric orbit. Currently, the point where the Earth is closest to the sun is on or about January 4th of each year. The result is that the southern hemisphere has short intense summers and long cold winters. The northern hemisphere has shorter, less severe winters and long cooler summers. But, as most of the land mass of the Earth is north of the equator, temperature swings are quicker due to less water to hold the heat. As the perihelion of the Earth shifts to its opposite point in July, the situation will reverse with the north having long deep winters, where ice will have a chance to build up. This is partly confirmed in the existence of massive ice fields in Antarctica. However, the massive ice shelves in Antarctica have recently collapsed and in a period where ice should be building, especially as we are also in a solar cooling as well. However, this has not been the case. In a spit of land that stretches almost to S. America, regions are now ice free and in the first time in living memory, plants are establishing themselves in Antarctica while Emperor penguins have left for colder climes further south.
What is behind this curious anomaly? It can be only one thing and one thing alone that fly in the face of cherished ideas of the nay sayers. That has to be the effects of combined human input on the globe. We are far from the first. Earth got its oxygen atmosphere from cyanobacteria hundreds of millions of years ago, changing forever the Earth and allowing for creatures like us. Now we are changing the atmosphere by adding pollutants that block sunlight and greenhouse gasses that trap heat. For the moment, the two have something of a canceling effect, but remove the dust; soot, sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide and the sunlight will pour in to really heat things up. The oceans will give off more moisture, making more clouds that will rebalance things, but with more intense storms. Statistic show that hurricane and typhoon severity has been increasing over the last couple of decades. January 2012 saw a first with several tornadoes in the US. Sure the solar cooling will chill things a bit and this may be a blessing to allow us to get our carbon act together, but overall, heat will still get trapped.
In this debate enters political realities and economics. In any scenario, we have to take this into consideration. Who stands to profit on both sides of the question in this competition of ideas? Those who deny global warming and dimming do so because they want to keep things just as they are because this is what is the most profitable for them. Others are left to clean up the mess or suffer from its accumulation. On the other hand, there are those who will profit from carbon taxes. On both counts, the poor will suffer the most and various interests will profit. But ultimately, the situation regarding our collective environment will have to be dealt with just because the evidence out there is telling us we must.
Al Gore, An Inconvenient Truth
Henrik Svensmark, The Chilling Stars
Arctic and Greenland meltdown