Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814
If you look at the global temperatures of this planet over the last million years, you will notice that the planet oscillates by about 12-20 degrees Celsius. Quite reliably, in fact.
You will also see massive, rapid spikes in warming for 5-10,000 years, followed by periods of cold (as low as eight degrees below ‘modern normal’) which last 50-90,000 years.
There have been four times in the last 500,000 years where global temperatures reached higher than they are today, and in each case, a 50,000+ year period of extreme cold occurred directly after.
We happen to be at the very end of one of these rapid warming spikes - maybe we have hundreds of years left, maybe thousands - who can say. I’ve heard that by 2200, Alberta is going to be closer to Northern California, climatologically speaking.
What I would say is, being able to grow crops at scale indoors/with genetic modification to adapt them better to changing environments, and an expertise in the extraction of fuel in extreme cold environments might be a useful knowledge set to have in the next 100,000 years. (And also, advanced solar technology - it all works together.)
That, and trying to make any scientific conclusions, much less formulate global policy, based on a 200 year sample size of rising temperatures (during the middle of a warming period) seems, at best, misguided.
Oh, and finally, polluting our environment is, inherently, bad, and we should, as a matter of public policy, try to ensure our societies operate as cleanly as possible.
|