If Global Warming/ Climate Change is going to cause an ice age then why did ice age's happen in the past??

Question

Did the cavemen use aerosol cans to stop them sweating?

Did the dinosaurs use petrol to power their automobiles?

Did cows f**t 10,000 times more than they do now?

I don't get it!!

Answer 1

Ice ages, and inter-glacial periods, are triggered by small changes in Earth's orbit called Milankovitch cycles (by astronomers) or "orbital forcing" by climatologists.

Since Earth's orbit can be computed for thousands of years into the past and future, we know that orbital forcing peaked 6000 years ago, during the Holocene Maximum, and has been slowly cooling the planet since then. Here's the science:

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/ab...

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/ab...

Answer 2

I am not arguing that Nature in the past did not cause GW/CC but the fact remains that man is attributing to the present GW/CC by excessive emissions of burning fossilised fuels into the air through vehicles and coal burning power plants. I sincerely hope this AGW is a hoax but in any case, all the countries on this planet have taken AGW seriously and have vowed to cut down the pollution.  Just heard through CNN today that China will cut down 20% of their pollution within 5 years.

Answer 3

The earth has been in a cycle of interglacial and glacial conditions. It's normal for earth to warm up and then "freeze" But that always takes thousands or even millions of years to change a condition. Currently, human activity has been producing carbon dioxide, methane, etc.

Global warming will probably cause a modern ice age because of increased precepatation. Without ice as reflectors, evaporation cannot be controlled, thus producing rain, sleet, etc that sweeps throughout earth.

There is no actual discovered cause for the past ice ages, however there are tested theories.The past ice ages could be a cause of plate techtonics, the moving of the earth's plates. Climate is very senstive to changing geography. Also, some scientists believe the changing of ocean currents (warm and cold currents) But the everything points back to carbon buildup in the atmosphere. Of course there were no cars or anything back then, so it was most likely the organism effect. While species go extinct, it allows others to thrive, including phytoplankton, a large contributer of methane gases. Which in turn, releases itself into the atmosphere, creating a barrier in wich heat radiation cannot leave.

Answer 4

Wow, I've never thought of that.  Dinosaur farts must've been HUGE!

1 Dino f**t probably equalled 10,000 cows.

I think we solved the mystery.

Answer 5

there were other reasons for those ice ages.

some of them may have been natural causes (not the kind you bring up, but close)

the thing is you can't be sure that there will be an ice age, or what will cause it,

you can be sure though, that current trends and conditions give a good approximation of future trends and conditions when talking about today's environmental research, and if conditions are mostly provided by people, it should be easier to predict what will happen. (of course, conditions are not mostly provided by people )

Answer 6

Climate change is causing the overall global temperature to rise not fall. Although some places like the UK may get colder due to the gulf stream, the overall temperature is going to rise. Aerosol cans do not contribute to global warming, they used to have CFCs in them which contributed to the hole in the ozone layer, but that is a seperate problem which was basically solved by banning CFCs. It is a seperate problem from climate change. The world does go through natural fluctuations of temperature, so global warming is partly due to the world heating up naturally, but made much worse by our actions.