The Earth Should Be Cooling. My Question to ATS: Why Isn't It?

Simply as the title states, I would like to see some theories that could explain why our planet isn't cooling. Most people know which theory I subscribe to, I don't want to discuss warming in this thread, I only want to know what people think is the cause of not cooling.

originally posted by: Kali74
Simply as the title states, I would like to see some theories that could explain why our planet isn't cooling. Most people know which theory I subscribe to, I don't want to discuss warming in this thread, I only want to know what people think is the cause of not cooling.

Why is it that the earth should be cooling?
Well, the 0.38 of a degree is hardly warming either is it. Who knows, next decade it might drop a degree or two.

Why cant the earth just do whatever it wants to do without people trying to attach a reason to it!

a reply to: VoidHawk

Because everything has a reason.

Global warming should trigger an ice age. The reason is that the temperature overall tries to maintain constant so the melting the caps should just change the location of things. So the glaciers may form in new locations. This is how I basically understood it back in school back in the late sixties when it was discussed. Now they have new theories since then but I feel their theory back then may have been more correct than some of the stuff they say now. Now it has gotten lot more complex and they forgot about the summary that they tried to better define.

When the earth warms a lot, it triggers an ice age. But this is a complex process and somehow something is interfering with it. Maybe it is from all the smoke billowing out of the Factories in China. Maybe it is because the Solar Max is different, by now we should have very few sunspots already.

a reply to: Kali74

This is a good way to start the conversation and an ideal analog, the opposite circumstance.

Would there be as much fanatical madness if the temperature of the Earth was perceived to have fallen 0.38 degrees since measurement began. Would there be riotous demands for tremendous increases in the production of carbon dioxide? Would carbon sequestration be a threat to national security?

Would there even be "carbon hoarding"?

Would we be determined to release the frozen methane in the sea floor so as to fix the immediate problem such as we now understand it?

As I have stated before, we should be paying attention to all of the data and find new types of data to collect.

Without a clear picture, anything we do as individuals (even more so as a group) will likely be more harmful than helpful. That is not to say that lowering personal contributions to particulate pollution is bad but, walking 20 miles to the grocery store to save gas and therefore save the planet is harmful if you die on the way from heat exhaustion.

a reply to: Kali74

Well firstly, our Sun is experiencing a solar maximum at the moment. Other planets in the solar system have also seen an increase in temperature. The compositions of those atmosphere are very different however and I don't have enough of a science background to know if that correlates correctly with earth.

And Climate Change in itself, doesn't suggest one or the other explicitly, it simply suggests that we will see extreme climate, either one way or another, because of the imbalances we are experiencing in the makeup of the atmosphere and pollution etc.

~Tenth

i have heard that the decay of radioactive elements in the earths crust is what keeps the earths temp "warm"

Internally its due to pressure, externally its due to its cosey insulating layer of gases.

Considering the huge (infinite?) range of possible temperatures that exist in the universe, with all contributing factors considered you have to ask why doesnt the earths temperatures fluctuate MORE?

Try to think of Climate Change in terms of being a change in weather patterns and cycles. Etc.

I see too many people tossing around warming and cooling trends as a method of substantiating their claims, whether they believe in Climate Change or not.

To be honest I personally despise the term 'Global Warming' - Even though the people that use this term generally support the idea of Climate Change, of which I am a total proponent... It tends to prevent them from seeing the bigger picture... and opens them up to being attacked by denialists and people who use cold weather events as their primary argument against the topic. And thus, it just becomes a downward spiral.

Of course temperature plays a key role in this; But always try to keep an open mind when discussing the issue. Eventually everything might make a little more sense. (At least that's how I see it.)

a reply to: Kali74

In short it may have to do with equilibrium .Don't forget that we started off as a molten ball and cooled and warmed and cooled etc. We are at a point where we don't have a complete accurate picture how this open system works .One very small part of the debate resolves around co2 and I think this lecture tells us what we can know and what we cant know about this small part of a much much bigger picture we call climate science .

originally posted by: tothetenthpower
a reply to: Kali74

Well firstly, our Sun is experiencing a solar maximum at the moment. Other planets in the solar system have also seen an increase in temperature. The compositions of those atmosphere are very different however and I don't have enough of a science background to know if that correlates correctly with earth.

And Climate Change in itself, doesn't suggest one or the other explicitly, it simply suggests that we will see extreme climate, either one way or another, because of the imbalances we are experiencing in the makeup of the atmosphere and pollution etc.

~Tenth

We are at a solar maximum for a long but total solar irradiance has been dropping since the 1980s so why aren't we cooling? Historically there are only a few solar maxes weaker than this one. The one we are in is called a mini max.

lasp.colorado.edu...

a reply to: Kali74

I don't know about the world but for 20 years we had weather in the mid 60's most of the time winter and summer and now I had my wood stove burning far into July of last year. I am so cold all of the time and it was never cold before.

I think the answer is that we still have a humid atmosphere. Our atmosphere traps heat from the sun.

Perhaps you should state why you believe the Earth should be cooling and then we can decide to either attempt to tell you, or decide you are kuckoo for cocoa puffs.

a reply to: greencmp

That is not to say that lowering personal contributions to particulate pollution is bad but, walking 20 miles to the grocery store to save gas and therefore save the planet is harmful if you die on the way from heat exhaustion.

No but giving $$ to your local political high priest to march upon tptb to save us might make a difference ./sarc no offence to you personally but only to those that may be thinking about a green revolution against the co2 I breath out ....a very slippery slope that should have at least one or two lines on the Georgian guide stones .

a reply to: Char-Lee

I am so cold all of the time and it was never cold before.

It happens as we get older you know .:>) Seriously though ,the temperature where I live can fluctuate and has for my 60+ years from -30 to + 30 ...That is a big variable but when I was a kid I would make a 200 ft. dash to the out house to do my thing and rush back in to collect myself over the furnace register to warm up a bit lol ..I don't miss those days lol

earth should be cooling cause why? cause our scientists told you it should be?

what do they actually know?its only been a few years since they found out that moons of jupiter and saturn aren,t as dead as they thought,mean according to them these places were dead worlds until they were proved wrong then they have to come up with a new theroy.

just except anything is possible and not what they feed you.

Don't be in such a rush Kali. It will.

originally posted by: the2ofusr1
a reply to: Char-Lee

I am so cold all of the time and it was never cold before.

It happens as we get older you know .:>) Seriously though ,the temperature where I live can fluctuate and has for my 60+ years from -30 to + 30 ...That is a big variable but when I was a kid I would make a 200 ft. dash to the out house to do my thing and rush back in to collect myself over the furnace register to warm up a bit lol ..I don't miss those days lol

I am sure that is true and there must have been at some time in the past the changes we have seen. For instance many years ago maybe 15 we planted a bush in the back near the house, it is a shade bush because there is the house and a redwood and sun never touched this area.
Well maybe 3-4 years ago I saw the sun on this bush and went out to look, all of the branches and trees remain the same I don't know why but not the sun always hits it and it is bloomed now for the first time really majorly bloomed.

I had decorative mosses all of these years and some kinds suddenly browned and won't grow here, many many other changes.

originally posted by: tothetenthpower
a reply to: Kali74

Well firstly, our Sun is experiencing a solar maximum at the moment. Other planets in the solar system have also seen an increase in temperature. The compositions of those atmosphere are very different however and I don't have enough of a science background to know if that correlates correctly with earth.


~Tenth

That is not accurate. The sun is actually cooling slightly and other planets are NOT seeing an increase in temperature.

What climate change is happening to other planets in the solar system

There are three fundamental flaws in the 'other planets are warming' argument. Not all planets in the solar system are warming. The sun has shown no long term trend since 1950 and in fact has shown a slight cooling trend in recent decades. There are explanations for why other planets are warming.

Sun & climate: moving in opposite directions

In the last 35 years of global warming, the sun has shown a slight cooling trend. Sun and climate have been going in opposite directions.