Why An Ice Age Happens Like Clockwork Essay

The passage declares numerus reasons in hope of justifying the real causes of Little Ice Age existence during 1350 till 1900 CE. On the contrary, the lecture challenges all the aforementioned theories by passage and believes inasmuch as the outdated information used by passage all those clarifications are merely sheer implausible misconceptions. In what follows, three major hypotheses and their critics will be delved into nut briefly.

Ice ages are well documented in Earth’s history, and they are proven to be relatively frequent. But what if that ice age persisted over not just regions near the poles, but around the equator as well? The term “snowball Earth” refers to a condition where Earth is completely covered by ice. Evidence indicates that snowball Earth may have been around in the Neoproterozoic. In fact, evidence points to the conclusion that these conditions happened three separate times in the Neoproterozoic. A snowball Earth condition is hard to prove, but this theory may explain several different phenomena. However, it is not accepted by all, there is evidence against a snowball Earth as well. Some believe that a snowball Earth would not have been possible in past climate conditions while there are views that defend the idea of more of a ‘slushball’ Earth rather than a planet entirely frozen on the surface.

Bill A.3080 states that prisoners who are part of the “special population” are not allowed to be placed in segregated confinement for any length of time, this includes twenty-one years or age or younger; (b) fifty-five years of age or older; (c) with a disability as defined in subdivision twenty-one of section two hundred ninety-two of the executive law, including but not limited to, for purposes of mental impairment, persons with a serious mental illness as defined in paragraph (e) of subdivision six of section one hundred thirty-seven of this chapter; (d) who is pregnant, is in the first eight weeks of the post-partum recovery period after giving birth, or is caring for a child in a correctional institution

The Great Warming by Brian Fagan claims that environmental changes (most commonly prolonged droughts, El Niños, and La Niñas during the Medieval Warm Period) affect human civilization, including human’s trading abilities, overall movement, and quality of life. He examines the world’s ancient climate warming, known as the Medieval Warming, between the 10th and the 15th centuries, also mentioning the preceding and succeeding centuries. Fagan gathers his research using studies conducted by archaeologists, historians, and paleoclimatologists. Throughout his book, he refers to direct methods to study climate change, such as instrument records and historical documents, and indirect methods, such as ice, deep sea cores, coral records, and tree rings. Fagan digs into the rise and fall of multiple civilizations around the world as an effect of The Medieval Warming Period. As well as examining civilizations across the world, he attempts to connect the climate change patterns during The Medieval Warming Period to the current global warming faced today. The Great Warming discusses positive and negative connections between climate change and human civilizations across the world, starting in Europe and working its way into Asia, North America, South America, Africa, and even covering the arctic ice caps; however, throughout the book, Fagan has a hard time connecting his various ideas back to one main topic and can easily stray from his point about the effects of climate change.

We all know that atmosphere is continually evolving. We have had ice ages and hotter periods when gators were found in Spitzbergen. Ice ages have happened in a hundred thousand year cycles for the last 700 thousand years. There also have been time periods that seemed to have been hotter than the present in spite of CO2 levels being lower than they are currently. Overall what I am saying is that we have had the medieval warm period and the little ice age. Because of these evolutions there has been different effects on the earth.

The true impact of “The Little Ice Age” began around 1600 and lasted until the 1800’s. During that time in Europe is when it was at its height. It was considered to be the most significant climate event of the last millennium. Only until recently have climatologist discovered research of climate conditions in historical times. As stated before, no one is quite sure how “The Little Ice Age” evolved. Climatologist and historians have had many discussions on what they think was the main cause of the ice age. Today they are able to determine the yearly average temperatures, rainfalls, volcanic activity, and the effect of the sun during that period . What we know is that the sun experienced a “quiet” period, meaning its intensity was not that strong. Therefore, a cooling occurred. Sunspots which determine the suns strength were noted to be in decline. Volcanic activity is to be another known source of the cause. As the volcanoes erupted they shot out particles and gases into the air. With these gases floating in the

Throughout history climates have drastically changed. There have been shifts from warm climates to the Ice Ages (Cunningham & Cunningham, 2009, p.204). Evidence suggests there have been at least a dozen abrupt climate changes throughout the history of the earth. There are a few suspected reasons for these past climate changes. One reason may be that asteroids hitting the earth and volcanic eruptions caused some of them. A further assumption is that 22-year solar magnetic cycles and 11-year sunspot cycles played a part in the changes. A further possibility is that a regular shifting in the angle of the moon orbiting earth causing changing tides and atmospheric circulation affects the global climate (Cunningham & Cunningham, 2009,

11,700 years ago the geological epoch the Holocene was thought to of began following the Pleistocene epoch, together these time periods make up the Quaternary period. The Holocene has been described as being relatively warm and with a fairly stable climate. Not only this, but it is thought to coincide with the start of agriculture as human populations rose throughout the Holocene technology became more sophisticated aiding the rise of agriculture (Holden, 2012). The early anthropogenic hypothesis was published in 2003 by Professor W.F. Ruddiman, this was a three part hypothesis in which Ruddiman proposed humans reversed natural decreases in CO2 values within the atmosphere by deforestation. That they reversed natural methane decreases after 5,000 years by irrigating rice, they also caused a warming sufficient to prevent a new glaciation within the last several thousand years and during the Holocene (Ruddiman 2005). This hypothesis has attracted a lot of attention with many people both supporting it and criticising it. Throughout this essay I will be exploring the many arguments for and against the early anthropogenic hypothesis and stating whether or not human kind could have prevented the start of an ice age during the Holocene.

We know that climate changes can be essential, but figuring out why they happen is intricate because there is not any rhyme or reason to why they happen. When I think of trying to decipher how and why weather happens, I think of how we try to predict El Niño and how it is not following the script. “The Wisconsin Glacial Stage is best known of the glaciations that affected North America, and it has been possible to divide Wisconsin into early, middle, and late episodes” (Britannica). This means that what we see around us now has changed not once, not twice but numerous times throughout evolution. Each time something else was effected, from landscape, vegetation, and animals that we are now exposed to. The current landscapes of areas that have encountered glaciers are much flatter. The vegetation from the past is now extinct. The soil of the land is very fertile but, because of the rocks it makes it hard to

After the boring-billion, came drastic climate changes on Earth. The boring-billion came to a halt with the breakup of Rodinia. Rifts occurred at the bottom and the middle of Rodinia, creating new coastlines. Microbial life was able to flourish in this fragmenting world. Atmospheric oxygen increased with increased production of algal biomasses. These masses scavenged CO2 out of the air, causing Earth’s atmospheric greenhouse to weaken and its climate to cool. This made it possible for ice caps to form and grow at the poles. The ice and snow reflected more sunlight into space, causing a rapid cooling of Earth’s surface. The Earth was covered in a sheet of ice, hence the name White Earth. After millions of years, carbon dioxide emitted from volcanoes

In the summer, the amount of sunshine received in the Northern Hemisphere can control the advance and retreat of ice sheets because of changes in Earth’s orbit. This has been the cause of ice ages in the past, when Earth has experienced long periods of cold temperatures (NRC, 2010).

Earth has experienced many episodes of dramatic climate changes with different periods in earth history. There have been periods during which the entire planet has been covered in ice and at another time it has been scorchingly hot and dry. In this regards, earth has experienced at least three major periods of long- term frigid climate and ice ages interspersed with periods of warm climate. The last glacial period which current glaciers are the result of it, occurring during the last years of Pleistocene, from approximately 110,000 to 10,000 years age (Clayton, 1997). Indeed, glaciers present sensitive indicators of climate change and global warming and by estimating and monitoring the dynamic evolution of these ice masses, several

The Medieval Warm Period (MWP) refers to a relatively warm period lasting from about the 10th to the 14th century.2 However, the initial evidence for the MWP was largely based on data3 gathered from Europe, and more recent analyses indicate that the MWP was not a global phenomenon. A number of reconstructions of millennium-scale global temperatures have indicated that the maximum globally averaged temperature during the MWP was not as extreme as present-day temperatures and that the warming was regional rather than global. Perhaps the most well-known of these is that of Michael Mann and colleagues (Nature, 392, 1998, pg. 779). Their reconstruction produced the so-called “hockey stick” graphic that contributed to this conclusion in the 2001 assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: “The…'Medieval Warm Period' appear(s) to have limited utility in describing trends in hemispheric or global mean temperature changes in past centuries." The accuracy of the “hockey stick” graphic was widely discussed in the press when the Mann et al. methodology was criticized by McIntyre and McKitrick (Geophys. Res. Lettr, 32, 2005, pg. L03710). Less attention was given to subsequent studies, such as that of Moberg and colleagues (Nature, 433, 2005, pg. 613) and Osborn and Briffa (Science, 311, 2006, pg. 841) that were based on different, independent methodologies but reached conclusions similar to Mann. Observations of melting high altitude glaciers are

The Arctic is global warming’s canary in the coal mine. It is a highly sensitive area which is profoundly affected by the changing climate. The average temperature in the Arctic is rising twice as fast as elsewhere in the world (nrdc.org). Because of this, the ice cap is getting thinner, melting away, and rupturing. Here is an example of this; the largest ice block in the Arctic, the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf, had been around for 3000 years before it started cracking in 2000 (nrdc.org) By 2002, the Ward Hunt has cracked completely through and had started breaking into smaller pieces. The melting ice caps are affecting the earth and its inhabitants in many ways. In this paper, the following concepts and subjects will be

In the historical background of Snowpiercer, Earth has undergone a drastic ice age as a result of a catastrophically misled attempt by humans to