Tag Archives: Milankovitch

The intriguing paradox of global warming piggybacking on global cooling

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17th century depiction of a frozen riverFlood, fire, drought … We have, by luck and muddled management, thwarted pestilence, but it seems that changing weather patterns everywhere are leading us on a merry dance.  Our climate is giving us a bumpy ride; anyone living in the Caribbean and southeast US, or Bangladesh, will attest to this, given the havoc that hurricanes and tropical cyclones have wrought over the past few months (northern hemisphere summer, 2017).  The skinny, outer layers of our world (air and oceans) seem to be getting warmer. No doubt there are consequences?

It may seem paradoxical, but global warming is taking place against a backdrop of global cooling. Forcing of global climates is governed by internal (within our own skinny sphere) and external agents; the latter by solar output and earth’s changing orbit. There is now, good Continue reading

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Astronomy, Cycles and Climate Change

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Cycle: ( noun) A series of events that are regularly repeated in the same order (Oxford Dictionary)

 

Jurassic conglomerate cycles - how did they form?

How Milankovitch cycles effect Earth’s climate

Natural cycles are all around us; tides, seasons, sun spots, birthdays, El Niño.  In geology we can identify cycles at many different scales, from the really grand to the wafer-thin (deference to Monty Python), from those that span eons, to cycles that repeat every few seconds.  Perhaps the grandest of earth cycles are those that last 100-300 million years and involve the formation and destruction of tectonic plates.  On a more human time scale there is the seemingly never-ending train of waves rushing to meet you on your favourite beach. Continue reading

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