RaventhePenguinNinja
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Us skeptics do not deny global warming....It is happening...we just don't think that man is causing it because the sun and natural fluctuations are much more powerful.
It is true that the sun plays a part in this. Natural causes, such as volcanoes, play a small part; But, since the Industrial Revolution, CO2 and other greenhouse gases have increased because of human interaction. We just need to own up and face that fact that we've caused a problem in the world, and we need to fix it!
I don’t mean to seem rude, but, actually that is VERY wrong...Yeah Carbon dioxide has gone up, but it’s been much worse in the Earth’s history... Natural causes are much more powerful in these types of changes. Allow me to give you an example in the Earth's history where natural causes, in-fact, almost exclusively volcanoes(and of course, the Milankovich theory, which should probably be a law by now but...), helped to warm the earth incredibly. About a few million years into the Late Hadean Era, the Earth underwent a serious cooling trend once water began to precipitate. Although the Earth was still very hot on the inside, the outside began to cool; this is in part that the sun was dimmer a few billion years ago. Once snow began to fall and started forming glaciers and ice caps, the very little of the suns heat that did reach earth began to be reflected back into space by the reflectivity of ice and snow. Temperatures are believed to have dropped down to somewhere between -20 C for the warmer areas and months, and as cold as -70 C for the current poles at that time.(Which move around as well, I believe the north pole then is where the current Europe is today, oh how we love Geology. mrgreen )
Now what's curious is that with increased Volcanic activity (The inside of the Earth was still very, very, hot and volatile) Extremely heated water vapor and sulfur, methane, and yes, trace amounts of Carbon dioxide, began to keep the heat from the sun in the atmosphere long enough so that near the end of the Early Archaen Era, temperatures popped back up to near 8 or 9 C. That is a huge difference in temperatures thanks to natural causes. The Earth is much more dynamic than people think. And that's just ONE example in the 4.6 billion year history of the Earth, granted not all are as extreme, but climate Change happens all the time (as far as geologic time is concerned), and for the Earth, it’s never a problem. While it may be a problem for humans in the long term, the Earth will always be capable of sustaining life until it’s magnetic field gives out.
And here, a more recent event in the Earth’s history where a volcano(which by the way, gases given off by volcanoes are dependant on viscosity of the magma inside the volcano and at what time in the Earth’s history the volcano erupted.) caused a temporary climate change.
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No one has ever seen a volcanic explosion on the scale of the Yellowstone eruptions, but smaller explosions have been observed and their activity described. Consider Mount Tambora, on the island of Sumbawa, Indonesia to grasp some idea of what's involved when a caldera forms during or just after an ash flow eruption. For about three years the volcano rumbled and fumed before a moderate eruption on April 5, 1815 produced thundering explosions heard 870 miles away. Next morning volcanic ash began to fall and continued to fall though the explosions became progressively weaker,
On the evening of April 10 the mountain went wild. Eye witnesses 20 miles away described three columns of flame rising from the crater and combining into one at a great height. The whole mountain seemed to be covered with flowing liquid fire. Soon these distant viewers were pelted with 8-inch pumice stones hurled from the volcano. Clouds of ash, borne by violent gaseous currents, blasted through nearby towns blowing away houses and uprooting trees. The village of Tambora was destroyed by rolling masses of incandescent, hot ash.
On April 16, booming explosions loud enough to be heard on Sumatra, 1600 miles to the west, continued into evening. Mount Tambora, still covered with clouds higher up, seemed to be flaming on its lower slopes. For a day or two, skies turned jet black and the air cold. When the eruption ended, the ash cloud drifted west and settled on all islands downwind. With the expulsion of so much magma, the mountain collapsed, unsupported from within, forming a great caldera. Lombok, 124 miles to the west, was covered by a blanket of ash two feet thick. Tidal waves crashed on islands hundreds of miles away. Waves and ashfalls killed more than 88,000 people.
Ash blasted into the stratosphere circled the earth several times causing unusually beautiful sunsets in London early that summer. In 1816, mean temperatures in the northern hemisphere dropped by half to more than 1° E Farmers in Europe and America called this the year without a summer.
Tambora's eruption was the largest and deadliest volcanic event in recorded history. How does it compare with the Yellowstone caldera eruptions? If we reduce all the ash from Tambora to dense rock equivalents and include all ash flow tuffs that formed at the same time, we come up with about 36 cubic miles of rock. Quite a bit compared with the destructive U.S. eruptions of Mount St. Helens in 1980 that produced about 1/4 cubic mile.
On the evening of April 10 the mountain went wild. Eye witnesses 20 miles away described three columns of flame rising from the crater and combining into one at a great height. The whole mountain seemed to be covered with flowing liquid fire. Soon these distant viewers were pelted with 8-inch pumice stones hurled from the volcano. Clouds of ash, borne by violent gaseous currents, blasted through nearby towns blowing away houses and uprooting trees. The village of Tambora was destroyed by rolling masses of incandescent, hot ash.
On April 16, booming explosions loud enough to be heard on Sumatra, 1600 miles to the west, continued into evening. Mount Tambora, still covered with clouds higher up, seemed to be flaming on its lower slopes. For a day or two, skies turned jet black and the air cold. When the eruption ended, the ash cloud drifted west and settled on all islands downwind. With the expulsion of so much magma, the mountain collapsed, unsupported from within, forming a great caldera. Lombok, 124 miles to the west, was covered by a blanket of ash two feet thick. Tidal waves crashed on islands hundreds of miles away. Waves and ashfalls killed more than 88,000 people.
Ash blasted into the stratosphere circled the earth several times causing unusually beautiful sunsets in London early that summer. In 1816, mean temperatures in the northern hemisphere dropped by half to more than 1° E Farmers in Europe and America called this the year without a summer.
Tambora's eruption was the largest and deadliest volcanic event in recorded history. How does it compare with the Yellowstone caldera eruptions? If we reduce all the ash from Tambora to dense rock equivalents and include all ash flow tuffs that formed at the same time, we come up with about 36 cubic miles of rock. Quite a bit compared with the destructive U.S. eruptions of Mount St. Helens in 1980 that produced about 1/4 cubic mile.
http://www.yellowstonenationalpark.com/calderas.htm
And btw, Yellowstone’s first eruption released 600-700-ish cubic miles of material if I recall correctly.
And this may sound odd, but as far as I’m concerned, Mankind has only experienced a real volcanic eruption only once, and that was Krakatau. Eruptions such as Pompeii and Mt. Helens are almost insulting to the massive Yellowstone Caldera Eruptions, and other massive Caldera eruptions that took place in my State of Colorado and other parts of the world.
Anywho, does Carbon dioxide play a part? It might, it might not, that has actually never been totally determined. I personally bet it does play a role, nothing amazing though. I would say it plays a mid to minor role….even in the quantities that we have spewed it out since the beginning of coal and oil use.
Of course, my main concern, and I have said this many times, is that when Ocean currents start changing due to climate change, we will be facing a problem.
We should be fighting that with more effort; although, I would love to see all-electric cars being driven around more often, but money from oil that goes to government is slowing us down. I mean we’ve had the technology now for 30 years, and we’ve had the ability to do it cheap for the past 5 years, in-fact I’ve driven an all electric car before, and the head of American Electric Vehicles, Dr. Rivers is a personal friend of mine who attends my Church. (here’s the website for them, http://www.aevehicles.com/aboutus.html If anyone’s interested. And Dr. Rivers looks older than that current photo would suggest. mrgreen ) But the moment all electric cars get into the market for a cheap price, a lot of corporations and CEO's are gonna’ be pissed ‘cause they’re about to lose a lot of money, and that, sadly is what is keeping us from greener tech and other scientific advances.
Ok, that Rant came out longer than I wanted it to be….but oh well…I think you all get the point.
