Posted on 10/11/2006 11:43:56 PM PDT by MadIvan
If you are the kind of person who worries about the future, this might not make happy reading.
Scientists have found that on average mammal species enjoy only 2.5 million years of life before being wiped out because of the Earth's "wobble."
They say when the tilt and orbit reach key points it can spark dramatic global cooling - and the last time this happened was 2.6 million years ago.
This suggests we are overdue a wave of extinction.
However, before you panic, scientists say our planet has changed beyond all recognition in the last 3 million years.
The new research published in the journal Nature (must keep) however sheds new light on just why individual mammal species seem to come and go with mysterious regularity.
The study, conducted by researchers at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, involved looking at 22 million years of data on rodent species to see which ones appeared and died out at key points.
They then studied the pattern of the Earth's wobble, which is caused by two factors, our orbit around the sun and the tilt of the planet.
Both of these can be slightly altered by the gravitational pull of other planets, in the case of the tilt it can adjust by as much as two degrees, and the orbit can vary from a circle to an ellipse.
Lead researcher Dr Jan van Dam said when the tilt reaches a certain point and the orbit is almost a perfect circle it can trigger ice sheet expansion.
This could then lead to colder summers, changes in humidity and significant climate cooling.
He found a clear pattern between the Earth's wobble and mammal species dying out.
There were two distinct cycles of species turnover, one with peaks every 2. 5 million years and the other every million years.
Dr van Dam said the last peak was 2. 6 million years ago.
However he said this does not necessarily mean we are on the brink of dramatic global cooling.
'The last three million years are not representative of those we studied,' he said.
"Northern hemisphere glaciation is fully developed and that also affects the climate system."
He said global warming and destruction of habitats could also change the patterns of the past.
He also thinks people may well be able to survive global cooling, give the way our ancestors coped with past Ice Ages.
"Humans have survived ice ages which were quiet extreme and are well adapted to survival," he said.
Based on the fossil record it appears on average we have lost around 10 to 100 species - including insects, bacteria, fungi and mammals - each year.
There are currently around 5,000 known species of mammal at present and in the past 400 years 89 mammals have died out.
Plus, the earth gains weight/mass every day with meteorites and the like, so our gravitational persona in the solar system changes, albeit slight. We move stuff all over the planet from its original place in the ground, so the wobble itself can be affected (I would imagine there is a huge shift in weight to where the US is). The sun's output varies in very small quantities and every now and then a comet come thru to stir up the mix, sometimes hitting the earth..........
This is no time to go wobbly....PM Margaret Thatcher :)
So, ladies, it's time to do our part again
bump
>>the orbit can vary from a circle to an ellipse.
Anyone who knows beans about Newtonian Mechanics knows that all orbits are elliptical. The foci may be closer (more circle-like) or further apart (less so), but they are elliptical.
Isaiah 24
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.
Nothing else has been able to get rid of the gophers on my land, I'll give it a try.
"This could then lead to colder summers, changes in humidity and significant climate cooling. "
Oh, NO!!! Global warming AND Global cooling! We are doomed!
I heard about that on Art Bell's show. while back.
Regards, Ivan
BURN MORE COAL NOW! We should also cut down all trees.
Indeed. Let's start pumping more CO2 into the atmosphere immediately. Burn more fossil fuels for the sake of the future.
It's also enormous fun to watch Greens go into apoplexic fits.
Regards, Ivan
"they've been 100% wrong. "
And you're 100% right. (no sarcasm intended)
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