What would happen if global warming effects would enhance one and other to create a cyclical ......?

Question

enhancement of one and other creating a global warming effect with no end? Could we become a Venus?

So, in effect that if our CO2 rise in volume created enough heating to melt the poles and we lost the cooling effect of the ice and increased the warming effect of open water and land which in northern Canada and Siberia released the huge volumes of methane stored in the perma-frost (methane being a greenhouse gas 26 more times the strength of CO2) and this heating and all the more ocean water evaporating creating a much more humid world with water vapor increasing and it, being about the strongest of greenhouse gases, therefor, added to the heating and the cycle continued to increase until our Earth was dry and hot with water vapor clouds permant in the sky.

Answer 1

I agree with Manda; positive reinforcement (like the examples you give) is indeed the nightmare scenario.

Not sure we could ever get to a Venus stage, the presence of our huge moon is a big factor in keeping heat, atmosphere and ocean in motion, but certainly this planet could reach an equilibrium at a temperature far higher than the current one

Answer 2

You're on to something.  Dr. Stephen Hawkings believes Earth will reach 450 Degrees and rain sulfuric acid.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/200...

Last year we were warned that the melting ice cap would thaw the permafrost which would release green house gases into the atmosphere causing a positive feedback that would melt more polar ice.

Then we had our coldest winter in 30 years and the ice sheet is now 0.11 million square miles more today than last year.

http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/image...

So in retrospect, no this feedback would never happen in reality, just in the minds of true believers.

Answer 3

Don't worry. One good asteroid collision or major volcanic event will block the sun and cool thing off.

These events are more likely to happen in our time.

Answer 4

Gee...it sounds kind of impossible......hey, are you one of Al Gore's screenwriters?  Will this be his next sci-fi movie?

Answer 5

Runaway feedback effects are exactly what some scientists are afraid of.

Here's an interesting summary of some of the feedback effects involved in climate change:  http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/global...

Answer 6

The only attribute that the Earth has in common with the Venus  is that its similar in size. We are further from the sun, have a stronger magnetic field compared to Venus’s weak one, we rotate every 24 hours on our axis, while Venus takes 224 days.

We are tidally locked with our moon, which makes the tides stable, and our seasons as well. The change in climate is natural, and seems to be much more in synch with the Sun’s output.

I see Global climate change as just a scare tactic.

Answer 7

wow, You are really into global climate,,Hope you wright a movie for the sci- fi channel

Answer 8

I don't think it will go that far, once Humans have made the planet uninhabitable for themselves plant-life will make a rapid recovery, and eventually temperatures are extreme weather will return to some sort of equilibrium.

Maybe with the increase in humidity and surface water, there will be more clouds which will reflect more sunlight, but i think hundred of years of deforestation and the recent explosion of human emissions are key. Get rid of the Humans, get rid of the problem ;)

Answer 9

No Venus is the way it is because it is too close to the sun, for water to exist in three states. Earth is in just the right orbital geometry to allow H2O to exist in gaseous, solid and liquid state, quite miraculous when you think about it. Also 550 million years ago CO2 was way over 4000 PPM as compared to 380 PPM and it didn't runaway.

http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/Carbon...

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