A Historical Look at the Ice Age and Global Warming

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A Historical Look at the Ice Age and Global Warming

One of the major enterprises currently dominating scientific researches has been the study of climate. With the threat of global warming looming over our heads, it makes perfect sense that climatologists and other kinds of scientific researchers would want to search the past for other patterns in climate change and fluctuation. Here is a brief overview over what we know and don't know concerning climate change, including a historical look at the ice age and the new frontier of global warming that is currently on the horizon.

Studying the past for instances and evidence for periods of climate change and climate fluctuation has become a major topic of study with the threat of global warming and its devastating effects looming in the horizon. Although human beings have actively been keeping records of weather, including precipitation, temperature, major storms, and other events, for more than one hundred years, we do not have systematic records of climate change beyond this period. Scientists have devised numerous indirect methods for trying to extend their observations beyond the recent past.

According to the scientific record, from he years 1100 to 1300 AD, the northern hemisphere experienced a period of warming that is sometimes nicknamed the medieval warming period. This period was then followed by what some have called a 'little' ice age, which occurred between the years of 1400 and 1850 AD.

Some recent studies into the historical patterns of climate change have yielded many interesting findings. Apparently, it appears that the general global climate has vacillated between several remarkable climate change periods. The findings have pointed toward a pattern which shows the Earths climate oscillating between ice ages and periods of warmth. It appears that during ice ages, large amount so water becomes tied up in the ice sheets and glaciers. During these ice age periods, it also appears that the sea level was reduced to as much as 400 feet.

What has caused all these historical climate oscillations? Most scientists believe that most of the major climate oscillations can be attributed to different orbital configurations that caused different distributions of solar radiation over different parts of the continent. According to scientists, these climate oscillations took part across various cycles and historical patterns.

Many skeptics of global warming point to these historical patterns to prove their point that the earth has always vacillated between many temperatures. However, the global scientific community has come to a complete consensus regarding the issue of global warming. They have all come to the same conclusion: global warming is indeed here. The evidence is present; it is caused by human activity; and it is happening right now.

The facts all point to a gradual warming of the earth. For example, the hottest years on the weather record show that the fourteen of the hottest years have occurred since the year 1980. One of the most compelling pieces of evidence for global warming is the fact that glaciers around the world have begun to retreat. The data has shown that glaciers have been experiencing recession on a wide-scale that could only be the result of the earth's rising temperatures.

The levels of carbon dioxides that can be found in our earth's upper atmospheres are believed to be the cause of global warming. The increases in the number of greenhouse gases that are released into the troposphere have been responsible for the earth's rising temperatures. Although there are many factors that affect the earth's temperature, including changes in the sun's intensity, the presence of airborne particulate matter, solar radiation, cloud cover, and sulfate aerosol. However, more and more evidence points towards the number of greenhouse gases that are emitted from the atmosphere as the main reason why global warming has become such a pressing problem.