Over the last 2.4 million years planet earth has been in many ice ages. The overall temperature of the planet’s surface has changed little over this time period. The ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland have remained fairly constant. The ice sheets that are no longer with us covered the northern hemisphere including much of the United States, Europe and Russia. We are now in an interglacial period. An interglacial period is a warming period between ice ages. Our current interglacial period has been warming for more than 10,000 years.
What caused the end of the last ice age we can only guess at. The sun goes through cycles where it gives off different amounts of radiation which can warm or cool us. The earth’s axis and wobbling rotation changes every 41,000 years or so sometimes making winter’s in the northern hemisphere longer and the summers shorter. Volcanic eruptions on the planet can spew gases and other particles of matter miles in our upper atmosphere blocking the sun’s rays from warming the earth thereby keeping us in an ice age. When we have less volcanic activity over ten thousand years the sun’s radiation will warm us. Some scientists believe a large comet or meteor hit somewhere near Canada breaking up an ice dam which blocked and trapped fresh water from returning to the ocean. Once this fresh water hit the Atlantic Ocean it stopped the thermalhaline conveyor system which helps regulate temperature and weather conditions throughout the planet. The causes are important for us to understand, but what is more important to understand is that we are now warming up. The cause of the latest warming has happened since the industrial revolution. Our latest warming has increased in the last 100 years and truly has accelerated in the last fifty years.
Planet Earth’s overall surface and atmospheric temperature has increased 1.1 degrees as of late and is steadily increasing due to the activities of mankind. Our civilization and culture has made many of us comfortable in our lifestyles, but this comes at a cost. The cost is a warmer planet. What will a warmer planet bring upon us? We will soon find out. The Pacific Ocean is warming bringing more cyclones to our friends and brothers and sisters in that area. The sea levels are rising and soon islands and cities throughout the planet will be under water. Glaciers in our mountain ranges are disappearing at a rate where none will be around in the decades to come. They bring fresh water and many peoples only freshwater to drink and raise crops with. I don’t mean to sound like chicken little and say the sky is falling, but these are the effects that our current warming [caused by mankind] is having on the planet. Areas that have been wet and rainy will only get wetter and perhaps have an increase in flooding. Areas that have been arid and dry will only get dryer turning more land into desert. This has been happening in Australia and the four corners area of the United States.
Our various countries and the governments of those countries are responding to this phenomenon very slowly. Worldwide greenhouse emissions are increasing. Greenhouse gases are the root cause of our current warming trend. The leader of greenhouse emissions is carbon dioxide CO2. CO2 is an integral part of life on planet earth, but too much of anything can have undesirable effects to all of us. Four billion tons of carbon is not being recycled by mother Earth. Our oceans and atmosphere has recycled carbon for millions and billions of years.
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