Posted on 02/13/2002 7:08:17 AM PST by johniegrad
WASHINGTON -- Feeling like the day is dragging? Blame global warming.
Increased man-made carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, a global warming gas, is slowing the Earth's rotation, according to a new study by Belgian scientists published Tuesday in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
It's not much of a slowdown -- about 1.7 microsecond or 1.7 millionth of one second a year, according to co-author Michel Crucifix, a climate researcher at Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium.
The slowdown occurs because extra carbon dioxide expands the mass of the Earth's atmosphere from the Earth's surface. The change slows the Earth's rotation for the same reason that the spins of ice skaters slow when they extend their arms.
Crucifix's findings were based on runs of 14 different computer models.
Even without global warming, Earth has been slowing, mostly because the gravitational pull of the moon has been acting as a brake. Keepers of the master clock at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington generally add a leap second to official time every 12 to 18 months to compensate, said observatory spokesman Geoff Chester.
The effects of lunar braking plus global warming add up to this: A day in 2002 is about .002 seconds longer than it was in 1900, Chester said.
Not that you'd notice.
If you're banking on getting an extra minute of sleep, it'll be an extra 3 million years before you see that,'' Chester said.
Smoke 'em if you got 'em boys!
If the Global Warming crowd would just do real physics, we could all at least argue with them. I did like the part about the wobble, LOL
That's a relief. I thought I was just getting fat.
Q: What effect did the Moon have on the Earth during the first few billion years?
A: Apart from the initial formation event which was probably catastrophic and melted the Earth's surface, most of the effects upon the Earth have involved the tidal breaking of the Earth's rotation rate. Today, the Earth rotates once every 24 hours, but near the formation epoch, it may have rotated as fast as once every 10 hours. The gravitational tidal action of the Moon upon the Earth, and vice versa, has resulted in some of the tidal energy of the Moon being dissipated as the Moon deforms the Earth's surface. This causes the Moon to continuously spiral outward from the Earth as it attempts to conserve its angular momentum. One would imagine that during the first billion years, the Moon was causing significant crustal stresses upon the Earth which may have amplified continental drift and produced some very ugly earthquakes and volcanic activity.
The earth's slowing is causing gasses to collect thus increasing global warming.
It's like you and your buddies are coming from the taco bell and somebody emits a greenhouse gas just as you're coming up to a construction site and have to slow down. You all begin to experience the usual symptoms: nausea, headache, teary eyes. These symptoms persist because the vehicle is proceeding at a low rate of speed. Eventually you pass the construction site and are able to increase speed of the vehicle and, very important, dissipate the noxious fumes that have accumulated in the vehicle by means of increased air circulation. It is, my dear scientific brethern ( and sistern), increased circulation that provides the dissipation of greenhouse gasses and it's pleasant cooling effect.
Now 'scuze me while I get on with my own dissipat'n.
ROFLMAO! I love it. You must do science for a living, so rational. Actually this effect has resulted from the abolishing of Kings and Emperors (no more bowing and scraping).
How could you possibly consider that this has not been a serious thread?
It is for this very reason that I can't go to Taco Bell any more. Those greenhouse gasses start building internally and soon there are some localized and very catastrophic climate changes.
Thanks for the link to this thread!
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