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Climate Change?

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  • Climate change makes sense to me - from what I've read and heard I've  worked it out as follows:

    Way way back when the planet was a relatively newly formed mass in space large areas of the earth was covered with hot steamy swamps growing giant trees and ferns and plants like marestail photosynthesising like mad, taking in carbon dioxide and producing oxygen.  This went on for aeons.  

    As the planet got older it cooled because the energy was 'locked up in the decaying plant matter, so the earth's crust hardened and under pressure the decayed plant matter became coal and oil buried beneath the surface.  

    Ice ages came and went and I understand that these are understood to be related to changes in the earth's axis and also solar changes.

    Then came the Industrial Revolution; first coal was mined and burned, then petroleum and gas were discovered and we burned and continue to burn that to produce the energy we have become so dependent on.  

    Don't forget those school physics lessons ... energy produces heat.

    The coal, petroleum and gas are the giant trees and ferns and plants like marestail which had covered the globe, photosynthesising carbon dioxide into oxygen.  By burning them we are releasing the carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere and slowly but steadily reproducing the conditions which prevailed back then.  

    Periods of cooling etc will continue to come and go because of changes in the earth's axis and changes to the sun, but while we continue to release the carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere we are causing the globe to heat back up.  Sometimes it will be two steps forward and one back, but the overall direction of the temperature is upwards.

    Pretty simplified explanation, but it makes sense to me. 


    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039

    Me too.

    Undoubtedly climate change will occur, that is nothing to do with us, but we have made the situation far worse and have a very limited time to try to reverse some of these changes.

    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • Of course the Earth's climate is changing. It always has and always will.

    What I don't accept is this notion that it will result in global catastrophe. There's a lot of evidence to show that's a political ruse intended to make a few rich people much richer, for next to zero net benefit to the rest of us. How vain a species we are.

    But that's for me and my conscience to resolve.

    I do agree that this is definitely not the right forum to debate the matter.

  • Hostafan1Hostafan1 Posts: 34,889

    Have you been listenting to Donald Trump?

    Devon.
  • It's trolling like that that starts flame wars.

    Last edited: 28 November 2016 11:35:47

  • jeninkent says:

    BobTheGardener

    Citation, or this is pure armchair 'expertise.' And please don't tell me to 'Google it.'

    See original post

     Certainly.  USGS:

    http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/volcanowatch/archive/2007/07_02_15.html

    Google is only useful if you are able to eliminate results based on 'armchair' science, of course.

    Edit: Oops, just spteed Ob has already posted that one.  This one is from the British equiuvalent and is a peer-reviewed paper:

    https://www.bgs.ac.uk/downloads/start.cfm?id=432

    Last edited: 28 November 2016 16:02:18

    A trowel in the hand is worth a thousand lost under a bush.
  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039

    See moreTop public postsLike PageimageABC News26 November at 01:27 ·

    The Arctic archipelago of Svalbard has seen such extreme warmth this year that the average annual temperature could end up above freezing for the first time on record.

    imageArctic Archipelago of Svalbard Sees 'Shocking' Temperatures Above Freezingabcnews.go.com|By ABC News

    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039

    image

    Map of the destruction of coral on the Great Barrier reef. Main cause of this is raised CO2 levels.

    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039

    Sorry picture not copied well, but if you click on it you can see the whole thing.

    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618

    I have never understood the "fact" often  quoted , that carbon dioxide levels have gone up. From my O level biology, I did experiments of altering growing conditions. Increasing the level of carbon dioxide  leads to an increase in photosynthesis by plants, all else being constant. So if the plant grows faster, more carbon dioxide is used and the ambient level remains the same.   Phytoplankton levels in the ocean  "bloom" when the water stirs up and more carbon dioxide and nutrients are available, thus fixing the carbon dioxide into carbohydrates in various plants.  The phytoplankton in the oceans, along with  grass and  forests suck up all excess CO2.

     

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