Random Statements About Something NOBODY Cares About, the resurrection

Quote from: RCMerchant on February 04, 2023, 11:06:39 PM

Cool! I have no clue WTF you are talking about! Buggedout

You'll like this story; I think it came from the "Climate Wars" documentary. Keep in mind, though, that I'm not a scientist, so I probably have these terms wrong.

Back in the 1970s, scientists predicted that we'd be entering a new ice age soon. Why? Because it happened many times in the past, around every 100,000 years or so. Why's that? Because the earth doesn't revolve around the sun in a perfect circle; in several cases it's closer or not. In addition, the earth wobbles when it rotates, and solar activity is greater or weaker based on some cycle. So, when it's not that close to the sun then it becomes cooler, and that leads to major cold spells worldwide.

That's what happened in the 1910s and the 1940s. The second is what led to the Nazi defeat in the Eastern Front: record cold leading to snow stopped them in their tracks and allowed the Russkies to recover and counter them.

The problem is that after 1976, record heat began to take place and towards the end of the decade there was no cold spell worldwide. In fact, there's hasn't been one since the 1980s. I think someone wrote an article about that: if you were born after 1987 or so, then you've never lived on a planet that experience a global cold spell, or something like that.

Scientists studied the matter further, and discovered that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere went up and down (ppm, or parts per million) with temperature, and figured that it was either an effect of warm weather (more things burn, leading to more CO2, etc.) or a cause (CO2 traps heat). It turns out to be both, but with the latter kicking in. That is, CO2 isn't the major cause of heat, but it increases things like water vapor, which are.

So, now they know that's what causing record heat and even record cold (when the sun is not that close, which is what happens during winter, and there's a lot of CO2 in the atmosphere, then that leads to more water vapor, and that means more cold) is increased CO2. But here's the sci-fi part:

They found out that at best the amount of CO2 ppm went up by the rate of 30 ppm every one thousand years, and that happened around a million years ago, likely due to intense volcanic activity. In time, the CO2 ppm reached 800; the maximum is usually 300. There was no large-scale human economy back then, dependent on normal weather to maintain economic activity.

Now, it's 400, but it's rising at the rate of 1 ppm every year, or fourteen times faster than it did naturally a million years ago.