Lately, we are hearing a lot of stories about global warming. Should we be worried, will this affect us in any way that might be harmful? Has this happened in the past? There are so many questions to be answered. The problem is that global warming is not only an environmental threat, it is also a economic one. Is global warming something new that we started by polluting the air?

Desert
Photo Source: NASA

Global warming has happened many times in the Earth's history. It is true we may have helped hasten it by some of the things we have done, but it has happened many times before. Sometimes it was called an interglacial period. When we came out of our ice ages it was done by global warming. Our Earth doesn't maintain a steady temperature, historically speaking. Mild periods on Earth usually last for about 15,000 to 20,000 years before we go into the deep freeze again. Well here is the bad news folks. It has been about 18,000 since the last ice age. So what does this mean? It means that we may be overdue or almost due for the next ice age, but before this happens the face of the Earth may be changed by global warming. As the ice caps melt faster and faster more water is deposited into the oceans, causing the seas to rise. Right now the CIA has charted the rise of sea level at 2 mm per year. Eventually all areas that are at sea level or slightly above might be wiped out. Not only is the sea level rising but there is something called glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) that is causing costal lands to sink. Now here is the kicker, more than 75 percent of the world's population live within 40 miles of a sea coast. To see what has happened in the past we just need to check our historical records. In the last 18,000 years, the sea level has fluctuated by almost 330 feet. To give you an idea of what this means, you could say goodbye to the east coast of the U.S. Another hazard we face is the chance of a huge piece of ice breaking off and causing a super wave that would travel for thousands of miles destroying anything in its path.

The above Quicktime movie (3.36 Megs) is of the Larsen Ice Shelf where a lot of ice is falling into the ocean
Movie Source: NASA
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As we know, one of the most important things causing the oceans to rise are the shrinking polar caps. How fast is the polar ice melting? Well it is melting so fact that it is predicted that by 2015 ships will be able to sail the Northwest Passage each summer. Northern Russia will be open to shipping even sooner, something that was not even thought of a few years back. American naval data has show that there has been a 40 percent decrease in the volume of Arctic ice. The ice cover itself has been shrinking at the rate of 3 percent per decade since the 1970s. This is not the end of this story however, it seems that the melting process may be speeding up. Another funny thing has happened. Everyone knows that glaciers are moving but they are very slow, maybe only reaching speeds of a few inches a year. The glaciers in Antarctica that are around the Larsen B Ice Shelf have sped up since 2002.

Back to the warming effect. The temperatures now are greater that any time in the last 400 years. Of course this is the average temperature for the whole world and it is still pretty cold in some areas, but still, the temperature is rising. El Ninos, is the warm ocean current that is causing some of the global warming, along with those devastating hurricanes. As areas get hotter and dryer, it has to have an effect on vegetation and crops, this in turn affects the food supply. Eventually that area will become dependant on other areas for its food.

Factory Pollution
Photo Source: EPA

It is true that we may be speeding along global warming by releasing carbon, methane and CFC gas into the atmosphere, but it is also true that even if we were doing nothing, the Earth would probably be heating up anyway and this is verified by the global record. We may be able to slow down global warming but it doesn't look like we can stop it, contrary to many scientific opinions. Most scientists that believe that changing human activities will halt global wraming are not taking history into consideration at all. They seem to ignore the fact that we are getting very near an ice age or are even overdue for one and that there is a period of time, a short period, where warming occurs before the big freeze. Aside from not pumping harmful things into the atmosphere is there anything we can do to actually stop global warming in it's tracks? It very well may be that there is a factor beyond our control and that is the sun's activity. Maybe some day we will have the ability to even shift the Earth in it's orbit but we certainly don't have that ability now. We can not control the output of the sun either so if the sun is one of the causes of global warming, what can we do about it? Nothing. Just as we can do nothing to stop El Ninos. When you look at things realistically, we are at the mercy of mother nature. Oh we might stop polluting but we will still enter a global warming phase and then an ice age!