A question about global warming and history?

Question

In the history of life on this planet, what

What is the earth's ideal temperature for sustaining life?

Answer 1

Earth became an entity 650,000 years ago and what was the temparature at that time and what it is now is something that need not be deliberated upon.  Let us talk about the the present.  Suffice it to say that the temperature of the earth has gone up by 0.6 degree celcius compared to about 20 years ago.  What is the effect of it is something that we have to worry about. Example: Himalayan and Kilimanjero snowcapped glaciers are melting fast and are receding. World is loosing about 10.45 meters of potable water due to this melting and its flow into the seas.  Result: sea level is rising, waves are becoming huge with lots of gale force and these mammoth waves are hitting the coastal areas and gobbling up the land.  Land mass is getting reduced by the day and people are affected.  Tribals and others living in these areas are moving to high lands and their rehabilitation has become a big problem.  People, wild life, flora and fauna are disappearing and the residues are rising the sea bed.  Islands are disppearing due to rise in sea level. Every hour 3 species are disappearing and every year more than 15,000 variety of species are vanishing due to bio-diversity.

Answer 2

If you want to continue to have the lifestyle you do, you ought to be asking the more relevant question:

"What is the ideal *climate* for human agriculture, specifically, the mass production of crops such as corn, wheat, and soybeans."

Asking about optimum temperature for life on Earth is a silly question.  Life in some form will survive so long as there is liquid water somewhere, whether in the cracks between rocks or as surface water.  Advanced civilization is a more delicate thing.

Answer 3

There isn't one.  Ideally it's just a stable temperature so that the species living on the planet have time to adapt to the change.

The problem with the current warming is that it's happening extremely rapidly.  After the last ice age the planet warmed 8 deg C in 8,000 years.  Over the past 30 years the planet has warmed over 0.5 deg C - a rate 20 times faster.

Answer 4

Of course there is no ideal temperature for the Earth.  

  There has also been no evidence of increasing temperature since 1998.  If we are constantly adding more CO2 into the air, the temperature should increase every year.  Additionally, some scientist are saying that we will not see any evidence of global warming for the next 10 years because of natural cycles.

Answer 5

The ever widening parameters of severe weather records  is one of the most obvious signs of rapid climate change due to global warming.

Answer 6

The ideal temperature for our advanced society is approximately what it had been for 10,000 years, until we started messing it up.

http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Ima...

"We humans have built a remarkable socioeconomic system during perhaps the only time when it could be built, when climate was sufficiently stable to allow us to develop the agricultural infrastructure required to maintain an advanced society."

"If the Earth came with an operating manual, the chapter on climate might begin with a caveat that the system has been adjusted at the factory for optimum comfort, so don't touch the dials."

The point is that our advanced society, with massive coastal development and intensive agriculture, is very sensitive to temperature change.  We're no longer nomads who can pack the tents and move.

Answer 7

There's so many aspects to this, where would you begin? What predominate life form are you going to use for a comparison on which to draw a datum line? What region or part of the hemisphere is pertinent? Natural variability has befuddle the best scientist, the IPCC acknowledges it. One only has to browse the DOE grant web site to see what areas of interest are inconclusive. A main one is  CO2 and the hydro cycle and how they interrelate. There are many, and I mean many more. So in the mean while we are limited to blanketed generalizations.

ed:(gcnp58), I like that...starch, carbo, and protein, but could u toss in a legume or two.

Answer 8

It depends on what life-form you want to sustain and their living conditions.  The dinosaur's like it warmer than I do and the polar bear likes it colder.  There are bacteria that seem to thrive in very hot conditions.

But as far as humans are concerned, the ideal temperature is the one that we have adapted our infrastructure too (i.e. sea-side cities, water supply systems, agriculture, etc.).  And that would be right around the average of the 20th century.