Posted on 08/30/2007 4:27:50 PM PDT by blam
Source: University Of South Hampton
Date: August 30, 2007
Next Ice Age Delayed By Rising Carbon Dioxide Levels
Science Daily — Future ice ages may be delayed by up to half a million years by our burning of fossil fuels. That is the implication of recent work by Dr Toby Tyrrell of the University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton.
Future ice ages may be delayed by up to half a million years by our burning of fossil fuels. (Credit: Canadian Ice Service)
Arguably, this work demonstrates the most far-reaching disruption of long-term planetary processes yet suggested for human activity.
Dr Tyrrell's team used a mathematical model to study what would happen to marine chemistry in a world with ever-increasing supplies of the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide.
The world's oceans are absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere but in doing so they are becoming more acidic. This in turn is dissolving the calcium carbonate in the shells produced by surface-dwelling marine organisms, adding even more carbon to the oceans. The outcome is elevated carbon dioxide for far longer than previously assumed.
Computer modelling in 2004 by a then oceanography undergraduate student at the University, Stephanie Castle, first interested Dr Tyrrell and colleague Professor John Shepherd in the problem. They subsequently developed a theoretical analysis to validate the plausibility of the phenomenon.
The work, which is part-funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, confirms earlier ideas of David Archer of the University of Chicago, who first estimated the impact rising CO2 levels would have on the timing of the next ice age.
Dr Tyrrell said: 'Our research shows why atmospheric CO2 will not return to pre-industrial levels after we stop burning fossil fuels. It shows that it if we use up all known fossil fuels it doesn't matter at what rate we burn them. The result would be the same if we burned them at present rates or at more moderate rates; we would still get the same eventual ice-age-prevention result.'
Ice ages occur around every 100,000 years as the pattern of Earth's orbit alters over time. Changes in the way the sun strikes the Earth allows for the growth of ice caps, plunging the Earth into an ice age. But it is not only variations in received sunlight that determine the descent into an ice age; levels of atmospheric CO2 are also important.
Humanity has to date burnt about 300 Gt C of fossil fuels. This work suggests that even if only 1000 Gt C (gigatonnes of carbon) are eventually burnt (out of total reserves of about 4000 Gt C) then it is likely that the next ice age will be skipped. Burning all recoverable fossil fuels could lead to avoidance of the next five ice ages.
Dr Tyrrell is a Reader in the University of Southampton's School of Ocean and Earth Science. This research was published in Tellus B, vol 59 p664.
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by University Of South Hampton.
On the other hand, they may not. It’s gotta be one or the other.
Whoo hoo! It’s BBQ time!
Assume = Ass - U - Me
Human activity: Nature's antidote for ice ages!
Click on POGW graphic for full GW rundown
New!!: Dr. John Ray's
GREENIE WATCH
Ping me if you find one I've missed.
And this is a bad thing, why? As I recall, they had glaciers down in Texas in the last Ice Age.
And we all know that those models are completely, 100% accurate, that have taken ALL factors in to account, right Doc?
Mathematical Model = just something me and boys came up with, over a few cold ones.
But just so ya feel good, we bought it.
New evidence suggests that concentrations of CO2 started rising about 8,000 years ago, even though natural trends indicate they should have been dropping. Some 3,000 years later the same thing happened to methane, another heat-trapping gas. The consequences of these surprising rises have been profound. Without them, current temperatures in northern parts of North America and Europe would be cooler by three to four degrees Celsius—enough to make agriculture difficult. In addition, an incipient ice age—marked by the appearance of small ice caps—would probably have begun several thousand years ago in parts of northeastern Canada. Instead the earth’s climate has remained relatively warm and stable in recent millennia.
Link:
http://www.hawaii.edu/geog_mr/ssci250online/11-climate/ruddiman.htm
Guess I won’t be needing all this firewood I have stashed away.
I should have added in Post #9 that this purported warming began with agriculture and changes in land use.
The last con job hasn’t gotten the job done, lets give this one a try!
Trying to Connect the Dinner Plate to Climate Change
NY Times | August 29, 2007 | CLAUDIA H. DEUTSCH
Posted on 08/29/2007 12:53:21 AM EDT by neverdem
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1888117/posts
Ice age is bad isn’t it?
Survey says.... what do the penguins think about it?
Don’t bother me none. I don’t like cold weather anyway. I’ll burn less firewood.
How do you factor humans with advancing technology in a math formula? Because of us there will never be another ice age or hot age, no large meteors will ever hit, and in a few billion years we'll figure out how to pipe hydrogen to the Sun to keep it running. That's so when our descendants return to the solar system on vacation Earth will have nice weather, and even reanimated Dodo birds and dinosaurs to watch.
Science Daily my eye!
Real science shows that CO2 levels are a function of rising temperatures, there for climate drives C02 and not visa versa
INTREP
I'll pencil it in on my calendar.
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