Climate Change

Climate change with mass extinctions has happened 5 times, they were called ice age! These Ice ages had names, Huronian, Cryogenian, Andean-Saharan, Karoo, and Quaternary. There was even a little ice age.

Only 150 years ago, Europe came to the end of a 500 year cold snap so severe that thousands of peasants starved. The Little Ice Age changed the course of European history.

Brace for flooding. A moon 'wobble' is coming, NASA warns

Jordan Mendoza USA TODAY

Thanks to a "wobble" in the moon's orbit and rising sea levels, every coast in the United States will face rapidly increasing high tides that will start "a decade of dramatic increases in flood numbers" in the 2030s.

The conclusion, which was published in the Nature Climate Change journal by NASA Sea Level Change Science Team from the University of Hawaii, has to do with the moon's orbit, which takes 18.6 years to complete, according to NASA.

For half of that time period, Earth's regular daily tides are suppressed with high tides at a low average and low tides happening at a higher rate. In the other half of the cycle, the opposite occurs.

"High tides get higher, and low tides get lower. Global sea-level rise pushes high tides in only one direction – higher. So half of the 18.6-year lunar cycle counteracts the effect of sea-level rise on high tides, and the other half increases the effect," NASA explains.

The moon is in its tide-amplifying cycle right now, and there is no cause for concern of dramatic flooding given sea levels in the U.S. haven't risen much. However, when the moon returns to the tide-amplifying cycle, the seas will have had nearly a decade to rise.

"The higher seas, amplified by the lunar cycle, will cause a leap in flood numbers on almost all U.S. mainland coastlines, Hawaii, and Guam. Only far northern coastlines, including Alaska’s, will be spared for another decade or longer because these land areas are rising due to long-term geological processes," NASA said Wednesday. 

How severe will the floods be? In 2019, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported more than 600 floods.

By the mid-2030s, scientists expect three to four times that amount. 

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the combination of the moon's gravitation pull, which causes tides in the first place, and climate change are the reasons behind the expected flooding.

"Low-lying areas near sea level are increasingly at risk and suffering due to the increased flooding, and it will only get worse,” Nelson said in the statement.

The study also determined some floods could happen in clusters, meaning they may last more than a month. Depending on the positioning of the moon, sun and Earth, cities may experience a flood in consecutive days or every other day.

While the amount of flooding won't be as much as a hurricane causes, having such frequent flooding can result in heavy economic damage.

"If it floods 10 or 15 times a month, a business can’t keep operating with its parking lot underwater. People lose their jobs because they can’t get to work. Seeping cesspools become a public health issue," said Phil Thompson, an assistant professor at the University of Hawaii and  lead author of the study.

NASA hopes the release of its findings will help at-risk cities take measures to prevent too much damage.

Rising sea levels already have made living on the coast risky. Some experts say it may have played a role in the catastrophic collapse of a condo building in Surfside, Florida. 

Solar activity also influences our climate

An interesting aspect of solar cycles is that the sun went through a period of near zero sunspot activity from about 1645 to 1715.  This period of sunspot minima is called the Maunder Minimum.  The "Little Ice Age" occurred over parts of Earth during the Maunder Minimum.  So how much does the solar output affect Earth's climate?  There is debate within the scientific community how much solar activity can, or does affect Earth's climate.  There is research which shows evidence that Earth's climate is sensitive to very weak changes in the Sun's energy output over time frames of 10s and 100s of years.  Times of maximum sunspot activity are associated with a very slight increase in the energy output from the sun.  Ultraviolet radiation increases dramatically during high sunspot activity, which can have a large effect on the Earth's atmosphere.  The converse is true during minimum sunspot activity.  But trying to filter the influence of the Sun's energy output and its effect on our climate with the "noise" created by a complex interaction between our atmosphere, land and oceans can be difficult.  For example, there is research which shows that the Maunder Minimum not only occurred during a time with a decided lack of sunspot activity, but also coincided with a multi-decade episode of large volcanic eruptions.  Large volcanic eruptions are known to hinder incoming solar radiation.  Finally, there is also evidence that some of the major ice ages Earth has experienced were caused by Earth being deviated from its average 23.5 degree tilt on its axis.  Indeed Earth has tilted anywhere from near 22 degrees to 24.5 degrees on its axis.  But overall when examining Earth on a global scale, and over long periods of time, it is certain that the solar energy output does have an affect on Earth's climate.  However there will always be a question to the degree of affect due to terrestrial and oceanic interactions on Earth.

Throughout our planet’s 4.5 billion years, there have been five big ice ages, some of which lasted hundreds of millions of years. Researchers are still trying to understand how often these periods happen and how soon we can expect another one.

The big ice ages account for roughly 25 percent of the past billions of years on Earth. The most recent of Earth’s five major ice ages in the paleo record dates back 2.7 million years and continues today.

Within these large periods are smaller ice ages called glacials and warm periods called interglacials.

During the Quaternary glaciation period, which began about 2.7 to 1 million years ago, cold glacial periods took place every 41,000 years. However, huge glacial sheets have appeared less frequently over the last 800,000 years and now appear about every 100,000 years.

In the 100,000-year cycle, ice sheets grow for roughly 90,000 years and then take another 10,000 years to collapse in warmer periods before the process repeats itself. However, the two factors related to Earth's orbit that affect the glacials’ and interglacials’ formation are off.

Biologists suspect we’re living through the sixth major mass extinction. “We don’t always know what caused them but most had something to do with rapid climate change”.

Man’s activity on the earth has little change on the earth’s climate. But yet it was said at COP26;

COP26 | Who has the most historical responsibility for climate change?

Rich countries, including the United States, Canada, Japan and much of Western Europe, account for just 12% of the global population today but are responsible for 50% of all the planet-warming greenhouse gases released from fossil fuels and industry over the past 170 years

NEW YORK TIMES

NOVEMBER 13, 2021 / 03:04 PM IST

But yet, they ignore the Brown Cloud Over Asia!

Asian brown cloud

The Indian Ocean brown cloud or Asian brown cloud is a layer of air pollution that recurrently covers parts of South Asia, namely the northern Indian Ocean, India, and Pakistan. Viewed from satellite photos, the cloud appears as a giant brown stain hanging in the air over much of South Asia and the Indian Ocean every year between January and March, possibly also during earlier and later months. The term was coined in reports from the UNEP Indian Ocean Experiment (INDOEX).

The term atmospheric brown cloud is used for a more generic context not specific to the Asian region.

NASA Eyes Effects of a Giant ‘Brown Cloud’ Worldwide

12.15.04

NASA scientists recently announced that a giant, smoggy atmospheric “brown cloud” that forms over South Asia and Indian Ocean has intercontinental reach, and has effects around the world.

Image: A dense blanket of polluted air hovers over central eastern China. The ‘Giant Brown Cloud’ is an unhealthy mix of ozone, smoke, and other particles from human activities. Click on image to view animation. Credit: NASA/ORBIMAGE

The word “smog” was coined by blending the terms “smoke” and “fog.” However, today smog means air pollution. Smog is a mix of particles and unhealthy gases including ozone that linger in the lower atmosphere, or the troposphere.

Scientists studied the intercontinental smog or ozone processes associated with the “brown cloud” using a new NASA technique to combine data acquired by satellites with ozone data measured by instruments on special weather balloons. The brown cloud is a persistent, but moving, air mass characterized by a mixed-particle haze, typically brown in color. It also contains other pollution, such as ozone.

Something not mentioned in the NASA article above is Biomass!

Biomass is an industry term for getting energy by burning wood, and other organic matter. (Dried animal dung in 3rd world countries, see below.) Burning biomass releases carbon emissions, around a quarter higher than burning coal, but has been classed as a “renewable” energy source in the EU and UN legal frameworks, because plants can be regrown. It has become popular among coal power stations, which switch from coal to biomass to comply with the law. Biomass most often refers to plants or plant-based materials that are not used for food or feed, and are specifically called lignocellulosic biomass. As an energy source, biomass can either be used directly via combustion to produce heat, or indirectly after converting it to various forms of biofuel. Conversion of biomass to biofuel can be achieved by different methods which are broadly classified into: thermal, chemical, and biochemical methods.

Dry animal dung fuel (or dry manure fuel) is animal feces that has been dried in order to be used as a fuel source. It is used as a fuel in many countries around the world. Using dry manure as a fuel source is an example of reuse of excreta. A disadvantage of using this kind of fuel is increased air pollution.

• In Egypt dry animal dung (from cows & buffaloes) is mixed with straw or crop residues to make dry fuel called “Gella” or “Jilla” dung cakes in modern times and “”khoroshtof”” in medieval times. Ancient Egyptians used the dry animal dung as a source of fuel. Dung cakes and building crop residues were the source of 76.4% of gross energy consumed in Egypt’s rural areas during the 1980s. Temperatures of dung-fueled fires in an experiment on Egyptian village-made dung cake fuel produced

“”a maximum of 640 degrees C in 12 minutes, falling to 240 degrees C after 25 minutes and 100 degrees C after 46 minutes. These temperatures were obtained without refueling and without bellows etc.””

Also, camel dung is used as fuel in Egypt.

Most Asian countries are poor countries!

Animal Dung, among other forms of fuel has been used ever since man learned how to make fire!

One Million years ago man discovers how to make fire.

1 million years ago

Claims for the earliest definitive evidence of control of fire by a member of Homo range from 1.7 to 2.0 million years ago (Mya). Evidence for the “microscopic traces of wood ash” as controlled use of fire by Homo erectus, beginning roughly 1 million years ago, has wide scholarly support.

Click on link below

Control of fire by early humans - Wikipedia

According to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez it’s more than just burning fuel.

AOC explains why ‘farting cows’ were considered in Green New Deal

By Yaron Steinbuch February 22, 2019

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spent plenty of air time explaining “farting cows,” as she defended her so-called Green New Deal on the premiere of Showtime’s “Desus & Mero.”

According to an initial outline of the measure, the freshman Democrat and Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) said they “set a goal to get to net-zero, rather than zero emissions, in 10 years because we aren’t sure that we’ll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast.”

The language was later changed to “emissions from cows.”

The Democrats, or as I like to refer to them as Demon-Rats always talk about FOLLOW THE SCIENCE!!! But do they? Do they follow the science?

There is more to the science of climate change than man’s activity.

A century ago, Serbian scientist Milutin Milankovitch hypothesized the long-term, collective effects of changes in Earth’s position relative to the Sun are a strong driver of Earth’s long-term climate, and are responsible for triggering the beginning and end of glaciation periods (Ice Ages).

Specifically, he examined how variations in three types of Earth orbital movements affect how much solar radiation (known as insolation) reaches the top of Earth’s atmosphere as well as where the insolation reaches. These cyclical orbital movements, which became known as the Milankovitch cycles, cause variations of up to 25 percent in the amount of incoming insolation at Earth’s mid-latitudes (the areas of our planet located between about 30 and 60 degrees north and south of the equator).

The Milankovitch cycles include:

1. The shape of Earth’s orbit, known as eccentricity;

2. The angle Earth’s axis is tilted with respect to Earth’s orbital plane, known as obliquity; and

3. The direction Earth’s axis of rotation is pointed, known as precession.