Global Warming......

Topics and issues of interest to cavers which are not related to caving. No political or religious discussions, please.

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Re: Global Warming......

Postby BrianC » Jan 13, 2012 9:57 am

Extremeophile wrote:You can't argue with stupid.


Totally agree! But I have seen numerous graduates from our liberal colleges and universities understand reality in time, and come around. I have helped many of them do so! So it is not "out of the question". :grin:
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Re: Global Warming......

Postby nathanroser » Jan 20, 2012 2:18 pm

A few things I've learned about climate change:

There's been an ice age about once every 100,000 years for the past million years. Our planet is currently a rather cold place compared to what it has been in other periods of time such as the carboniferous period. With all the soot and other particles our industry and vehicles put into the air, in some study areas they have found a decrease in sunlight intensity. Think back to the days after September 11th, 2001 how much clearer the skies were for a few days after all air traffic was grounded, so if humans are warming the planet with greenhouse gas emissions we may also be offsetting some of it by releasing particles that block out sunlight. Also, human contribution to greenhouse gases is only a fraction of the total amount that naturally cycles through the atmosphere. I honestly think all the hullabaloo about carbon dioxide is too much, nitrous oxides, methane, and water vapor are all a huge part of the cycle as well.

That being said the climate is an incredibly complex system and I think humans are affecting it. Not so much by our direct emissions, but by land use. With so much land converted to agriculture and cities, and forests removed, that should upset the natural cycle and cause the current trend that science is observing. Of course some giant volcano could go off suddenly and spew so much dust into the air that we go into another ice age. Mother Nature is silly like that.

And all the more reason :cavingrocks: since we can use speleothems and sediment cores to gather climate data from underground.
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