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Irreversible climate damage is imminent

#81
MatticusMania said:
There is quite a lot, actually. So much so that I couldnt even begin to explain here. If youre interested, theres a lot of good literature on the subject out there.

They are the historians who study ancient civilizations. Theres a lot to know, but it is widely believed that there were civilized, settled, peoples all around the globe prior to cataclysmic events that wiped many of them out between 15,000 and 10,000bc. They claim that the Sumerians were not the first to settle, but were rather the reemerging of those that survived the deluge.
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Deluge? The geologic record indicates that the ice sheets were near their maximums around 15,000 years ago and sea level was much lower than today. By 10k, things were melting out and the ice sheets were retreating. By that point, sea level was higher than today (if I remember correctly) by a small margin. However, there's nothing present in the geologic record to indicate that the ice sheets melted quickly enough to cause a catastrophe.

And there's no record/evidence of large-scale continental inundation following the last ice retreat. You really have to go back some time for that. I think the late Cretaceous.
 
#83
And an imminent ice age was the hysteria in the 70s.
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That was due to a media confusion over imminent. In the 1920s Milankovitch proposed a mechanism for glaciation based on orbital wobbles. There wasn't accurate enough data to confirm the timing and confirm the theory until the 1970s, and then it was indicated that an ice age was imminent, but that meant then (and it still applies now) several thousand years in the future, which is pretty much instant on a geological timescale.
 
#84
MatticusMania said:
They are the historians who study ancient civilizations. Theres a lot to know, but it is widely believed that there were civilized, settled, peoples all around the globe prior to cataclysmic events that wiped many of them out between 15,000 and 10,000bc. They claim that the Sumerians were not the first to settle, but were rather the reemerging of those that survived the deluge.
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That sounds like an allusion to the Younger Dryas, 12800 to 11500 years ago in some ways, but the theory is that this caused changes in climate that drove the Sumerians to settle and develop agriculture as hunting became less productive and that this led to tales relating to paradise lost of a time when agricultural toil wasn't required.

One theory that seems to be getting some credence these days is that the change was due to a meterorite impact into the North American ice sheet causing melting of it then knock on effects of air and sea currents.
 
#85
Marial said:
Actually just read on YahooNews or CNN that there is some belief (and evidence) that the human species was nearly wiped out, can't remember for sure but I believe it was due to super volcanoes (like the one under Yellowstone).
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I think that is suggested to be a supervolcano causing climate change bringing the human population down to a few thousand or tens of thousands. Maybe as low as 2000.
 
#86
Sav'nBass said:
I don't even think that that is up for debate.. Considering what we have done to the environment over the last 200 years .. between greenhouse gasses and deforestation.. I mean.. anything can be debated.. You can debate whether or not life begins at conception or whether or not we are alone in the universe too.. but the facts are pretty obvious.. at least to me..but hey..
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199 years ago, the Thames froze over and that's the last time. Did you know that Europe had been experiencing a 'Little Ice Age' at the time? Does that mean anything to you? For close to 200 years, they had far lower average temperatures and we're still coming out of this. 200 years is NOTHING to the Earth or universe.

That is, unless you ascribe to the "Universe is about 6500 years old" theory.
 
#87
Munjibunga said:
Even if it's happening, it's not irreversable. It may seem like it in terms of human lifetimes, but the polar caps have melted numerous times over geologic history, then come back to cover half the planet with ice. I'm not going to sweat it. I'll be dead by the time anything drastic happens.
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That's the way I feel about it too. My carbon footprint ain't going to amount to crap when you look at the big picture.
 
#92
Unrepresented said:
The "Kool Aid" of the overwhelming majority of scientists who study such things, as opposed to the ill-educated pundits relying on cynicism, who of course preach only gospel truth.
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"overwhelming majority"... please. But let me ask you this... who gets to decide when the changes in climate have leveled off and we have arrived at the optimum climate? Who gets to decide that? Serious question...
 
#96
gbrooding said:
"overwhelming majority"... please. But let me ask you this... who gets to decide when the changes in climate have leveled off and we have arrived at the optimum climate? Who gets to decide that? Serious question...
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consensusproject_97percent.jpg.CROP.original-original.jpg
 

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