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Author claims - The Sun is a varible star that causes the Earth's
reoccuring Glacial Ages.
At the present time the world is experiencing a "Bull Market" in global
warming, the planet is still emerging from the last major glacial age.
How long this global warming trend will continue is anyone's guess, it
may be nearly over or the warming trend may go on for hundreds of
years. Just as in a bull stock market, the warming trend will not be
constant, there will be dips and set backs but the general temperature
trend will be higher until the warming trend levels off and enters into
a long stable interglacial age. If this interglacial age is anything
like the previous major interglacial ages, it will last for at least
thousand centuries before entering into another glacial age.
The environmentalists are blaming this warming phenomenon on the
emission of greenhouse gases caused by automobile and industrial
emissions. British Prime Minister Tony Blair recently said "global
warming is advancing at an unsustainable rate". Blaming greenhouse
gases may be true to a limited extent but the major glacial cycles that
have been going on long before mankind came on the scene are the
overwhelming cause of the present global warming phenomenon.
The global warming we are now experiencing is part of a major natural
cycle of total solar energy upon the planet, a natural phase of the
sun's cycle of expansion and contractions. Donald Hamilton, author of:
"The Mind of Mankind" (Refer: Chapter 12 - The Birth of the Earth)
claims these periodical expansions and contractions of the sun are the
cause of the major glacial and interglacial periods that geologists
have determined, happened with remarkable "reoccuring regularity" over
the past million years and probably throughout much of the life of the
planet.
This "reoccurring regularity" is strong evidence that our sun is a
variable star that expands and contracts in fairly regular cycles,
although at a very attenuated pace. These expansions and contractions
cause the total solar energy upon the planet to vary over long periods
of time. If you could have measured the sun's disk at the height of a
glacial age it would have been slightly smaller and the total solar
energy would have been less. The Earth would have been slightly cooler.
It does take much to change the Earth's climate drastically.
The major "Nebraskan" glacial age, that occured about a million years
ago, was followed by a warm interglacial age that lasted well over
100,000 years. This was followed by the "Kansan" glacial age followed
by another long warm interglacial age that lasted about 300,000 years
which was followed by the "Illinoian" glacial age, etc.etc.. At the
present time the planet seems to be emerging from the latest
"Wisconsin" glacial age into another warm interglacial age that may
last for 100,00 years more or less.
These major glacial cycles are a worldwide phenomena effecting both the
northern and southern hemispheres. The Antartica glaciers are also
subject to melting during the interglacial periods, adding to the
higher sea level. The head of the British Antartica Survey, Chris
Rapley, warned that the huge west Antartica ice sheet may be starting
to disintegrate and could raise sea levels by as much as 16 feet.
The earth, at the present time, is just emerging from a "little ice
age" that may actually be the end of the "Wisconsin" major glacial age.
The planet had entered the "little ice age", cooling period around 1200
AD which continued until about 1650. At that time the cycle turned and
the planet resumed its warming trend. The "little ice age" may have
been just a little aberation toward warmer times of the major
interglacial trend.
World wide, this warming trend has already caused a great reduction in
the amount of land that was previously covered by the glaciers.
Scientists estimate that up to 20 million square miles of land, will
eventually be free of glaciers, that were once covered at the height of
the "Wisconsin" glacial period some 50,000 years ago. At that time the
glaciers covered much of the northern regions of North America and
Europe.
This interglacial period will have a profound effect on the climate of
Greenland. The Norsemen originally settled there just before the
"little ice age" aberation settled in. At the time there were green
pastures and longer summers and little or no sea ice to clog the
harbors. When this changed toward a colder trend the summers grew
shorter and the winters became colder. The glaciers began advancing and
sea ice began to clog the harbors. This eventually led to the isolation
and extinction of the original Norsemen settlers.
Now that the cooling aberation is over the glaciers are again
retreating, the green pastures of Greenland will again bloom. The
coastal sea ice will disappear. New towns will again be established,
trading and ranching will again flourish. It will be like a great
reawakening for the land after being trapped in a deep freeze for over
400 years. The northern lands such as Alaska, Russia and Canada's
climate will become milder. The permafrost will retreat further north
and the tree lines will advance northward. Vast new agricultual areas
will become available as the summers become longer for growing crops
and ranching.
Unfortunately the desert areas of Africa will spread out causing more
famines to occur unless the people living there can adapt to growing
crops in this arid area using the latest scientific methods.
The weather will continue to become more energetic causing more and
stronger hurricanes and tornadoes in the southern USA. The low lying
underbelly of the country will become much more vulnerable to the
higher sea level and stronger storms. Levees and sea walls will have to
be built much stronger and higher. It may become totally impractical to
live in low lying areas of the Gulf region. This will be a very slow
process however, perhaps taking as long as several hundred years. The
low lying countries of Bengaladesh and Holland, etc. will also be at
risk to the rising sea level.
The sea level of the oceans have already risen quite abit during this
warming trend. The coast lines of countries around the world will
continue to change as the sea level rises. Evidence of this already
happening can be seen where ancient harbors around the Mediterrean that
were once above sea level, are now below sea level. The coast lines
around the world will continue to change as the warming climate
releases more glacial ice back into the ocean. Perhaps there really was
an "Atlantis" civilization 10,000 - 20,000 years ago when a lot more
ice was locked up in glaciers and the sea level was much lower.
The polar regions have already become increasingly important because of
warming climate trend. With the polar sea ice disappearing, seaports
and trade routes are being planned along the far northern coast lines.
Already commercial shipping is beginning to use the polar routes as the
Artic Ocean becomes more navigatable. Cruise ships are even beginning
to explore this area. Canada is planning to build a deep-water port at
Iqaluit, the Arctic territorial capital. Political friction is already
beginning to heat up over land claims in the Polar region.
How long our global warming "Bull Market" will last is anyone's guess,
it may be nearly over or it may go on for hundreds of years. What ever
it is, the stable, warm interglacial period that follows, if it is
anything like the previous major glacial cycles, will last for at least
thousand centuries. A thousand centuries of warm mild climate - that
sounds pretty good to me. Now if only mankind can last through this
century.
Don Hamilton, author of "The Mind of Mankind: Human Imagination, the
source of Mankind's tremendous power!
http://novan.com
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