--------- #1436 - Will man last another 100,000 years with these extremes?
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- Attachments : See video from : http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/nstv/2012/03/how-to-survive-the-next-100000-years.html
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- The video gives a good summary of the catastrophes our planet could experience in the next 100,000, the year 100,2012. These estimates come from looking at our history going back 2,000,000 years in geological history.
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- By studying ice glaciers science has concluded that Earth had an Ice Age the starting in the “Middle Ages” and lasting into the 19th century. The “Little Ice Age” started abruptly between 1275 and 1300. The cause of the cooler temperatures was the repeated explosions of volcanoes and then a sustained self -perpetuating sea-ice-ocean feedback mechanism in the North Atlantic Ocean.
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- There is evidence that the Little Ice Age affected places as far as South America and China. The biggest effect was felt in northern Europe. Advancing glaciers in mountain valleys destroyed entire towns. People were ice skating on the Thames River in London. Canals in the Netherlands were frozen shut. Big glaciers advanced in the Alps and in Norway.
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- Erupting volcanoes cooled the planet by decreasing summer solar radiation because of the aerosol particles the eruptions put into the upper atmosphere. Four massive tropical volcanic eruptions lasted for a period of 50 years. Once temperatures cooled they did not return to average summer temperatures until into the 20th century.
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- The cooling temperatures sent expanding Arctic sea ice down along the eastern coast of Greenland until it eventually melted in the North Atlantic. Because sea ice contains almost no salt its melting caused the surface water to become less dense preventing it from mixing with the deeper North Atlantic water. This , in turn, weakened the heat transport back into the Arctic. It created a self-sustaining feedback system with the sea ice long after the effects of the volcanic aerosols subsided.
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- This study of the Little Ice Age concluded the Sun’s variations in its 11-year cycles had little effect over the last 1,000 years. Volcanoes were the culprit.
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- 2,000,000 years ago East Africa dried up and forests became grasslands. Science has concluded this from fossils of grazing animals that peaked 1,500,000 years ago. What controls rainfall in the tropics is where the warm water is. Water evaporation from the warm oceans creates the rains.
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- By sampling ocean floors science discovered that the eastern side of the Indian Ocean warmed and the western side cooled. Therefore the cool waters off the coast of East Africa lost the rainfall and that part of the continent dried up.
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- What caused the Indian Ocean to have these dramatic temperature changes?
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- We don’t know?
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- 105,000 years ago Homo Sapiens were moving out of Africa. At that time northern ice sheet were dumping giant icebergs into the ocean. This dumped a lot of fresh water into the ocean. Fresh water is lighter and stays on top of the salt water resulting in dramatic changes in the ocean currents. This likely dried up most of northern Africa and is probably the reason Homo Sapiens hiked out of the continent into Europe and Asia.
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- To illustrate how fast a volcano can erupt: The volcano in Santorini, Greece, erupted in 1600 B.C. after 18,000 years of being relatively calm. The interesting aspect of this history is how quickly things changed. In less than 10 years the magma changed from quiet into an active volcano. Ten years is a flash in geologically time.
- Another conclusion from these studies is that the temperatures today are the warmest they have been in the last 2,000 years. Global Warming is real and certainly does exist. the real question is how much will nature contribute and how much will industrialized man contribute. After how much then we need to decide if any of this can be corrected by man’s actions. The effects of fossil fuel burning and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and in the oceans is key. Carbon dioxide can be returned into the land to correct the balance if we want to do it? It is dirt simple. Check out the video to put this stuff all in perspective. An announcement will be made shortly , stay tuned.
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707-536-3272, Monday, March 19, 2012
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