As we all know, most of the continental land lies in the northern hemisphere of our planet.
Northern hemisphere of earth has been undergoing periodic glacial ice ages. In every 100,000 years 90,000 years have been a glacial ice age followed by a intermediate shorter 10,000 years of moderate temperature.
The reasons for these repeated ice ages are not known. One reason might be the wobbling of earth’s axis. Or may be that Sun passes through some galactic dust cloud periodically there by blocking sunlight to earth which triggers an ice age! Ice age can also occur if some comet/asteroid explodes near sun, where its debris blocks sunlight to earth! Super Volcano, Nuclear wars etc might also cause shorter ice ages.
We have been without an ice age for more than 13000 years!! So we are already overdue for a new ice age in this cycle!! It may have started any time. Or has it already?
Ice age starts when the average atmospheric temperature goes down. The greenhouse gases in the atmosphere of earth, like CO2 ensure that night side earth does not cool down suddenly to temperatures below zero! These gases maintain a minimum warmth on the earth there by making life possible.
Due to the man made pollution on earth the green house gases have been steadily increasing in this planet’s atmosphere. Environmentalists are absolutely right in saying that these green house gases have been causing an increase in earth’s temperature, which is definitely a cause of concern.
But then, is it possible that it is these very green house gases that have saved us from an ice age this time? The CO2 dumped into air by man made pollution has prevented the ice age this time? Is Global warming a boon which is preventing a global cooling?
Sometime back, I had read an interesting article somewhere on the internet related to this. CO2 in air is good to the growth of plant life. Ever since we have started polluting this planet by more and more CO2, algae growth has increased heavily in the oceans of the earth. As we all know, it is these algae which had once upon a time cleaned much of earth’s CO2 when life started evolving. Now that there is abundant CO2 in atmosphere, algae are thriving again to consume this CO2.
Imagine a scenario where in, in the next 50 years we come up with cleaner fuels, say from nuclear fuels or solar energy. Then we stop using petroleum related fuels in order to reduce pollution. Since we will be using environmental friendly cleaner fuels, the CO2 emission by industries and automobiles will go down to almost zero. Only CO2 emission in the atmosphere will be what life on earth breathes out.The existing chunk of CO2 by earlier man made pollution will be cleaned out over a period of time by the ocean’s algae.
But what after that? The excess algae created by pollution are still there in vast amounts in the oceans and now there is no CO2 by pollution for them to consume!!! They start consuming even the normal CO2 level in atmosphere which maintains a normal temperature on earth. In other words even the required green house gases will be gone!!! This would simply mean that we would have been accelerating towards a new ice age, just in a matter of one or two decades once we start using clean fuel!! In this case, even the ice age would be man made!! Then this ice age would also be supported by the natural ice age which was suppressed by global warming earlier!! Will this new ice age ever end then???
So what am I trying to say here? Well, once we come up with cleaner fuels, we need to take global cleaning of man made pollution as a gigantic project and analyze all the angles and repercussions of global cooling. In this case, we need to ensure that the excess algae created in the oceans by global warming are wiped out first. We need to have a controlled reducing of CO2 level in atmosphere so that the natural CO2 level is always maintained, which would prevent a permanent ice age on earth.
Cleaning out pollution on earth would be a huge task indeed and I think those nations which contributed most to the earth’s pollution should share an equivalent cost in cleaning earth too. Obviously USA will have to share atleast 50% of this cost. But looking at the impending collapse of US dollar, given that every American citizen already has a debt of over 28000$ on his/her head, I dont think US can pay for that
First of all, in a natural cycle, the Earth would do that. Second of all you are way oversimplifying. There are SO many variables that go into the Earth’s atmosphere, it is a circle and whenever any part of that circle is broken, or accelerates or alters the process, it has a domino effect.
I would like to point out that while it would be nice to think that our pollution is helping the Earth, it’s not. Take nuclear waste in Russia for example. The half life of that radioactive waste is over a million years. Now think of that land that will never be usable and tell me that somehow the ice age is going to take care of that problem.
I get so frustrated when people like you still want to sit on the fence and debate whether or not global warming is a real threat. Hello, it is. Just look at the math, do you really think 6 billion people can keep multiplying and inhabiting the planet? I mean we could, but it’s not going to be the planet that our grandparents remember. People aren’t going to talk about trees and how beautiful parks are. Because there will be none.
Of course this sounds like global warming is the harbinger of death, but it doesn’t have to be. We can cut the world’s population down to a more reasonable level than 9 billion (projected by the year 2050). Then, we can work on having a world revolution which involves changing everyone’s ideas about how we exist and shake things up so that when we finally finish, we can be more humane towards our planet.
We can also pollute less. I think that’s the most important thing. Polluting less. Consuming less, reusing more, recycling more. Reducing is just another way of saying “”Consume less””.
I would like us to follow the Iroquois philosophy of the “”seventh generation”” Look back seven generations to see what to do (in the case of the Europeans, don’t look back j/k) and look forward to the seventh generation and how our decisions (good or bad) will impact them. (Wikipedia, seven generation sustainability)
In that case, I don’t want the human race’s seventh generation to be living in a world without trees, beaches, sunsets, ice, snow, clouds, flowers, wild animals….
Let’s consider the impact before we dismiss the conclusions that reputable scientists have been coming to from ALL OVER THE WORLD.
Hi Guru,
Was just going thru ur blog and came across this post… I was wondering if u have seen the documentary “”The great global warming swindle””…. its there on google videos.
It seemed to make a lot of sense… I m currently in Germany and have roamed around a bit of Europe… here I have seen garbage being collected and disposed of in a methodical way and the vehicles adhering to the modern emission norms, BUT i have never seen a campaign to prevent global warming, no efforts being made by companies, people, government to use less paper… nobody talks of a car-pooling, central heating in most residential buildings is still done by heating oil and letting the smoke out through a chimney….all the hue and cry that i have witnessed, related to global warming, has been in India only!! strange but true…
I will wait for an intellectual’s comments…