Global warming

If I am not mistaken, scientists believe in the ice age. Didn't glaciers 10,000 years ago cover most of America. I thought that these glaciers were over one mile thick where Manhattan now exists. Am I crazy to think that global warming might be a no brainer. Wasn't the earth allot colder during the ice age than it is today. How could Man's industrialism be held responsible for global warming when the Earth has been warming  for thousands of years.  Is it me?

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       You are correct on the fact that glaciers covered the area known as
Manhattan around a 1,000 years ago. But did you know that the global
temperature at that time was only about 5 -6 degrees cooler than it is now? 
Pretty far out, but it is true. Since 1863 the global temperature has risen
about 3 degrees. So in reality there is a problem, every where from drastic
climate changes to severe flooding. I suggest you read up a little more on a
subject that you plan to create web site for.
D_B

How can you say that this isn't part of the normal heating and cooling of our Planet. A cycle which has been repeated more than once. Where you there last time smarty pants?

Thought you might find some recent theories on global warming and ice ages
interesting. I've been researching this for a science fiction project, but
the ideas are compelling.

The thought is that global warming may cause a "global flush" of fresh water
into the Atlantic. The North Atlantic conveyor belt (responsible for the Gulf
Stream) would be stopped dead as normally salty water in the north fails to
sink, keeping warmer water in the south from going north. The cycle
disrupted, a rapid cooling trend could ensue, affecting Eaurope most
profoundly (their latitude would provide much cooler weather if it were not
for the North Atlantic conveyor...Southern Ireland actually has PALM TREES
thanks to this-even though it has the latitude of Quebec!).

Once the conveyor is disrupted, other world-wide currents would follow. Some
speculate that a global "Superstorm" could be triggered-they even say that
this has happened before, explaining why mammoths have been found frozen
solid with summer flowers in their mouths. This storm would be wicked indeed,
200+ MPH winds, horrible swells. Snow and ice cover deep enough to not melt
the next summer, beginning the cycle of the next ice age.

Its' all pretty far out there, but interesting I think.

I would also like to respond to another person's comment I saw on your site.
This person said that the last ice age was triggered because the earth "went
too far away from the sun." Although the earth does have a noticeable
"wobble" to its rotation, its orbit is quite constant. Some have blamed the
wobble, some have blamed sunspots, some have blamed decreased output from the
sun, others a combination of all these factors. In my opinion, a suitable
explanation doesn't exist yet.

An ice age happens every 100,000 years or so-often starting and ending very
abruptly (people used to think it took hundreds or even thousands of years,
but recent research supports rapid, even turbulant shifts in temperature. The
"global flush" theory seems as good as any to my as to why ice ages occur.
However, only about 4% of the scientific community agrees!

It is also important to note that our current period of warmth is a very
small spike in global temperatures that range the spectrum. Remember, for
much of the earth's history, there were NO icecaps at all. Global warming is
a very natural trend, whether or not we are accelerating the process. To me,
what's interesting is that the process is really a cycle-the earth will
respond to regulate the closed system, I fear with an ice age.

For anyone who cares, I am working on a role-playing game with this premise
(along with some other speculative science themes.) Anybody interested or
with more info on this topic should email me!

Thanks.
--J S

Good point, but the iceage was caused when the earth got too far away from the
sun. Now as the earth got closer to the sun the glaciers melted and now g. w.
is caused by humans. Another ice age is coming soon - Katiebear7@aol.com

Reply - Thanks for the thought on global warming.
I'm not sure how you or I can be certain that humans are responsible, seeing
as this is the first time we are witnessing this event with our new scientific awareness.
As the earth warms; plants, animals and insects produce more and more greenhouse gases.
certainly humans have sped up the process, but we could just be seeing it for the first time.
Really my pages are just thoughts that before now would go unshared with others,
I'm happy to have struck a cord with you and hope you enjoyed your visit

HRM
CC

You are right the earth is in a natural warming trend, however humans
influence on the environment might result in accelerated warming. The
burning of fossil fuel is an open-loop process. In terms of engineering,
open-loops tend to be unstable.

Interesting web page!

Reply -Thanks for your email
this question as simple as it is certainly makes one think.
I will add your comments to the page and hope you enjoyed your visit.

Chris
HRM