Fossil fuel-burning 'postponing next ice age'

The Guardian ^ | 01-13-2016 | Damian Carrington

[NRx]

Humanity's burning of fossil fuels is postponing the next global ice age for at least 100,000 years, according to new research that has discovered the tipping point which plunges the planet into deep freezes.

Showing that human activity, via climate change, can alter global processes like ice ages is compelling evidence that the planet has entered a new geological epoch, dubbed the Anthropocene, according to the scientists.

Other recent research listed evidence from plastic pollution to the mass extinction of wildlife to show that the Earth has entered the Anthropocene.

The new research also shows that a major ice age was narrowly missed just before the industrial revolution , probably because the development of agriculture had nudged the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere just above the tipping point.

[NormsRevenge]

Yur gonna need a gas auger with a mile long shaft to get thru the ice sheet to the fish.

[central_va]

During an ice age the ocean level drops a lot. Florida would grow in size.

[NormsRevenge]

People forget the Earth is a living breathing planet that has managed to outlast Lordy knows how many ancient civilizations and cosmic disasters long before Al Gore was ever a tot..and it has done just fine.

Mankind seeks to make itself relevant.. Politics makes people believe they can make a difference. On a cosmic timetable, Mother Nature proves them wrong every time.

[aquila48]

Bookmark

[ctdonath2]

We're at the peak of a temperature cycle. Things WILL start cooling off, to the point that "global warming" will be the only way to counteract long-term cold badness.

Antarctic ice core data from NOAA website.

[butlerweave]

The next global ice age will come and there’s nothing we can do about ,these people think the planet earth is the size of their Brain

[lacrew]

“At worst, wouldn’t it be carbon-neutral and have no net effect?”

The article is placing this planet saving agriculture at a time before the industrial revolution. So I would say the widespread use of fertilizers derived from fossil fuels had not yet occurred...and agriculture certainly didn’t cause any additional co2 in the atmosphere. I still think, as long as we continue with agriculture, there will always be a slight net loss of co2 in the air - because there’s always a field somewhere storing co2 in plant form.

But nothing I can see about pre-industrial agriculture would fit the AGW narrative, as far as warming the earth is concerned. And really, at the time of the industrial revolution, we only had 1.5 billion people on the planet...we have quadruple that today, and we probably grow a lot more per capita today...using their logic, the earth should be on fire by now.

[theoilpainter]

I agree. My question was rhetorical. The closing of the Isthmus of Panama coincided with the beginning of the current Ice Age.

My problem is with easy, simple answers to complex questions.

[roadcat]

The new research also shows that a major ice age was narrowly missed just before the industrial revolution , probably because the development of agriculture had nudged the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere just above the tipping point.

Actually, the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere follows a warming trend, not the other way around. When there is global heating, carbon dioxide levels rise because of it. Their research is faulty, and does not follow the historical record. Industrial revolution had nothing to do with "missing" a major ice age. It's the Sun.

[Toddsterpatriot]

I think breaking up the prairie in the Midwest, for example, released a lot of the carbon trapped there. Also, clearing forests for fuel and farmland. Plus, probably, more methane from more farm animals.

[Wonder Warthog]

"The new research also shows that a major ice age was narrowly missed just before the industrial revolution , probably because the development of agriculture had nudged the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere just above the tipping point."

Not just "agriculture", but I seem to recall seeing research specifically pointing to the cultivation of rice by irrigation. Apparently, the shallow water standing over broad swathes of earth (artificial swamps) causes the emission of MUCH more CO2, but probably also of methane, a much stronger greenhouse gas than CO2.

[HLPhat]

Dang. Better rev up the lawn mower and F150 too.

{ see my new tag line }

[HLPhat]

When the Earth Froze

The rocks tell us that at least twice, the earth has frozen over from the poles to the equator

“.... Glaciers that came as far south as New York and Wisconsin, as some did 18,000 years ago, were not the problem. No, the whole earth including the oceans froze over. We were a blinding white Christmas tree ornament in the blackness of space: “snowball earth...”

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/when-the-earth-froze-174847631/#3TbM1DUbO7LXPdkG.99

[HLPhat]

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/when-the-earth-froze-174847631/?no-ist

[NormsRevenge]

I grew up in West Central Minniesoda.. The landscape was ice scaped more than once over the eons..

The ice set up late this year.. Dang globull varming I reckon.

I miss ice fishing.. So did some of my relatives there.. Until it finally deep froze .. As the jetstream flows , so goes the weather.

[Yaelle]

This is funny. Way back in college in the 80s I took a geology course. The professor actually cried in class because he was afraid for the world. He loved greenhouse gases because he said they were saving the world from extinction. I don’t remember too much about it but he loved air pollution because he said it was saving the planet.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Thanks...I completely forgot about the “snowball earth” hypothesis. It’s interesting that before the earth froze solid 600 million years ago, there were only single-celled organisms. That leads me to conclude that 100% of the electorate voted for the Democrat candidate.

[ChessExpert]

If there were tipping points, we woulbd have tipped in the past and there would be no life.

The idea of “tipping points” is one of positive feed-back loops. Think of a snowball rolling downhill accumulating snow and getting bigger with each roll.

We are fortunate, one might say blessed, that the earth has a negative feed-back loop that moderates excesses.

As the earth warms, perhaps due to greater solar activity, the oceans warm and there is increased evaporation. Evaporation takes energy out of the air and cools. You experience this when you sweat and a dry breeze blows by.

The increased water vapors from the oceans mean greater cloud formation. More clouds provide more cooling shade. Also, the top-side of the clouds act as mirrors reflecting sunlight back to space.

The process works in reverse to moderate cooling temperatures.

[AFreeBird]

Ive posed that question people before. Which would you rather have: an ice age or a green lush and warm period?

[samtheman]

Ive posed that question people before. Which would you rather have: an ice age or a green lush and warm period?

---

And as Freeman Dyson points out, the last really warm period included a wet Sahara. Very good for planet Earth to have a wet Sahara.