Astronomical Theory of Climate Change

In my previous post, I referred to an article from the WSJ about natural cycles which have stronger climate influences than the emissions contributed by humans. The author discussed how other phenomena are strong contributors to global climate as well.

A US Department of Commerce (NOAA) article (access in the following link) - Astronomical Theory of Climate Change - further elaborates the concepts discussed from the WSJ.

Earth is a traveler. "The TILT of the earth relative to its plane of travel about the sun is what causes its seasons." However, an even more significant impact to global climate is caused by CHANGES in the earth's tilt. "MORE tilt will mean more severe seasons. LESS tilt will mean less severe seasons.

The earth not only tilts but also WOBBLES. There are regular cycles to these effects. It seems that the TILT can change from 22 to 25 degrees on a cycle of about 41,000 years.

Of course, this gets even more complex with yet another variable. The earth's orbit around the sun is not quite circular. That means that there are times when it is slightly closer to the sun than at other times. The CLOSEST approach of earth to the sun is called PERIHELION. This "roundness" of its orbit is called ECCENTRICITY and varies in cycles of 100,000 and 400,000 years which also contributes to the severity of the seasons.

All of this is leading to the introduction of the Milankovitch Theory. It seems that this Serbian astronomer did a lot of calculating and determined that climate change can be explained by changes in the seasons which results from changes in the earth's orbit around the sun.

Since it is the orbital changes which have the greatest impact on climate change and that these "changes occur over thousands of years, then the climate system may also take thousands of years to respond to orbital forcing."

So, let's return to the previous post and take a few thoughts from its author, Howard Bloom. "Weather changes and occasional meteors have tossed this planet through roughly 142 mass extinctions since life began 3.85 billion years ago. That's an average of one mass extinction every 26.5 million years. We do not want to be victims of one of these mass extinctions! We have to prepare for more than just the changes we think we make."

To conclude with thoughts from a previous post.

1. Does this mean that CO2 is NOT a greenhouse gas? No.
2. Does it mean that there is NOT global warming? No.
3. Does is mean that we should NOT develop clean, efficient technology that gets its energy elsewhere than burning fossil fuels? No.

This simply means that there is a lot of stuff going on around us that requires us to be as creative as possible while we are in the current 12,000 year cycle of climate stability. Because,"Mother Nature is not nice" and in the grand scheme of planetary cycles, we really don't carry a lot of weight and influence. We simply need to take care of the things that we are most responsible for.