A Global Warming Consequence?

[C1ay]

Just thinking out loud here.

 

Suppose the climate does warm to the point that the ice caps at the poles are significantly reduced. Like a spinning ballerina that begins to spread out and slow down, could the Earth's spin slow down as a result of the water moving to the lower latitudes? Just how much could the Earth slowdown before the satellites in the Clarke Belt would no longer be geosynchronous? How dependant are we on these satellites and what effect would this have on our lifes? Then again, could a solar storm could take them out at any instant? Are we prepared to lose them at any instant? What do you think?

[Turtle]

___I don't recognize "Clarke belt'.

___ On the other question of slowing down Earth, clearly redistributing the water is a valid variable in the whole dynamic of Earth motion. The Earth is steadily slowing as it is, & the Suamtra quake/tsunami is known to have slowed our rotation measurably.

___What effect do you suppose the Yucatan meteor impact had on our rotation? A big hit from one way can slow us down, but the same hit coming from the opposite direction would speed us up. We simply do not yet have the capacity to consider all the variables we know, let alone the variables we don't.

___Everything, as they say, is connected. Que sera sera. :confused:

[C1ay]

___I don't recognize "Clarke belt'.

___ On the other question of slowing down Earth, clearly redistributing the water is a valid variable in the whole dynamic of Earth motion. The Earth is steadily slowing as it is, & the Suamtra quake/tsunami is known to have slowed our rotation measurably.

___What effect do you suppose the Yucatan meteor impact had on our rotation? A big hit from one way can slow us down, but the same hit coming from the opposite direction would speed us up. We simply do not yet have the capacity to consider all the variables we know, let alone the variables we don't.

___Everything, as they say, is connected. Que sera sera. :confused:

 

The Clarke Belt is an orbit above the equator approximately 22,250 miles high. Satellites placed in this belt orbit the Earth with a 24 hour period. This allows them to appear stationary from the ground as the orbit synchronously with the Earth's rotation. This minimizes the tracking requirements of ground equipment. Arthur C. Clarke wrote of such a geosynchrounous orbit in 1945 and it is named after him. The majority of satellites we use for communications are in this orbit.

 

As the Earth's rotation changes slowly we could use a slightly changing altitude as we place new satellites in orbit. If the Earth's rotation changes faster than the life cycle of the satellites such that they require a higher orbit then they would no longer be synchronous. This would render them useless with the current antenna structures that are used for geosynchrounous satellites since most of it is built without tracking capabilities.

 

We have come to rely quite heavily on these satellites for communications, weather and storm tracking. They carry most all of the international phone traffic and much of the domestic long distance networks. Television distribution is globalized through satellites. If an abrupt event occured that rendered them useless, would we be prepared?

 

I suspect the Yucatan meteor impact had some effect. Being 65 million years ago we have no way to measure the actual effect though.

[Fishteacher73]

There is some argument that a sudden melting of the ice caps would actually usher in another ice age. Our weather systems are primarily driven by ocean currents. Ocean currents are driven by thermohaline variances(The subtle differences in salinity of the oceans). The sudden dilution of the oceans would essentially wrek havoc on our oceanic currents and stop funneling heat away from the equator and toward the poles. The poles would then begin to freeze again and expand because there is no warmer energy being piped up to it. As the ice sheets increased the albedo would increase, deflecting off more solar energy, driving the median temp even lower.

[Turtle]

Aaahhh...THAT Clarke belt. GETE

___C1ay said, "If an abrupt event occured that rendered them useless, would we be prepared?"

___I am prepared for that eventuality, yes.

 

___As to ocean currents & what drives them, the thermohaline variances Fish mentioned are just one of many ocean current systems. What is fast coming to light is the importance of the relatively unknown circumstances of underwater volcanism in relation to the world's ocean currents.

___Some indications are that it is the ocean water warming from beneath that may be responsible for apparent global warming. If this is the case, warmer water means more evaporation, means more precipitation, means more severe storms, means maybe we are entering an ice age now.

___The geologic record shows a relatively stable pattern of ice ages at approx. 11 thousand year intervals. Where are we in that cycle pattern? Is it just a coincidence the Sun has an 11 thousand year cycle? Where are we in that cycle?

___Mmmmm...looks like we're at the topstroke of both. :confused:

[Queso]

Honeslty, I want to see something catastrophic happen. It would wake so many people up. and well...put a bunch to sleep forever too. but that's not the point.

[justforfun]

I read somewhere (maybe National Geographic) that one of the consequences of the polar ice caps melting, if they are, would be an increase in earthquakes, especialli in the Northern high altitudes. They made it clear that the melting would not cause the quakes, they would result from normal stress, but that the melting would affect the timing of these quakes. Alaska is one of the top three areas in the world for small earthquakes these days, and since no matter what we do now (ansd we probably won't do much) CO2 levels will probably rise in our atmosphere for another ten years, anyway, with all the effects on our planet and environment that implies. Stay tuned

[Fishteacher73]

As well as the fun of rising sea levels....Beach front property in Arizona, anyone? lol

 

As for the the increase in geological activity...Perhaps the added weight of all the extra water (Although if i recall that the fresh water only makes up about 3% of the total water volume), that may be the straw that breaks the camel's back, so to speak, in sparking off a lot of geological activity.

[Queso]

As well as the fun of rising sea levels....Beach front property in Arizona, anyone? lol

 

tool does this song aenema, where he says something like "See you down in arizona bay, learn to swim"

kind of funny.

[bumab]

Global warming would only melt the water locked in glaciers, as icebergs and the whole of the north pole ice pack are already displacing as much water as they contain. So, global warming would only raise sea level about 5-15 meters (or so, it's a fuzzy figure), if every drop of frozen water on earth melted.

 

the real problem would be increased rainfall and flooding in some places, increased drought in others.

[Turtle]

___Again I point out that it is underwater volcanism melting polar ice. The melting has allowed research vessels to reach open water further North & now it seems we have an entire previously unknown active volcanic chain discovered sitting right under.

___It is not the case that the entire world freezes over in an ice age, but they do come on catastrophycally(sp), vis a vi mamoths quick frozen, standing, with temperid climate plants still green in their mouth. Said mamoth(s) have remained in situ for 11,000 years.

___If we are entering an ice age, the ocean levels actually will drop, not rise. In fact they are dropping, not rising. Somewhere out in the Pacific I think is a tiny island nation which is all of a string of atolls the highest point of which any of them is just 12 feet above sea level. With all the talk of global warming & rising seas, they started keeping careful records as you can well imagine. These records now show that sea levels have dropped over the last several years.

___So where's the water you ask? It's in the glaciers that are growing, inspite of all the glaciers that are retreating. May we live in interesting times! :Alien:

 

PS I will try & get some hyperlinks to this entering an ice age view

PSS Increased new glacier formation :confused:

[Fishteacher73]

One thing that always seemed to puzzle me was if we are infact increasing the median temp of the planet, should not the oceans' median temp remain constant until the ice caps melted? Is the system too large to apply general phase change chemistry to it?

[Turtle]

Here is the promised link:

http://www.iceagenow.com/

[Turtle]

Here is a great link to the atoll I mentioned in post #11:

http://asterweb.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery-detail.asp?name=Maldives

___I just watched a PBS show where they claimed sea level is rising, but they used measurements from coastal Louisiana & while it is true the sea is invading inland, I suspect it's the land is sinking.

___I still don't know what to believe!? :eek: :rant: :rant: :eek: :bat:

[justforfun]

I read a theory once that the buildup of ice at the poles would eventually cause the earth to wobble and there would be a pole shift, so maybe global warming is actually saving our ***. I read another scientist say that global warming maybe the only thing preventing us from sliding into another ice age. It seems that we are rapidly compiling more accurate data and should soon have better guesses about what causes what, but as of yet its a lot of guesswork. The weather sure has been crazy lately, though. I live in New Mexico and we went from a cold wet winter to a Hot (100 degrees) Spring in the last week with no in-between. Stay tuned ...

[Queso]

yeah, and i live in florida. all of these hurricanes.....oi. DEFINITELY weird weather. (THANK DOG IM GOING TO BE IN CALIFORNIA FOR THE SUMMER!)

[Biochemist]

___Again I point out that it is underwater volcanism melting polar ice. The melting has allowed research vessels to reach open water further North & now it seems we have an entire previously unknown active volcanic chain discovered sitting right under....

I am willing to bet anyone a cup of cofee (and I mean good cofee) that 40 years from now, we will be laughing that we actually thought global temerature changes were caused by elevations in atmospheric CO2.

 

And we will have an entirely new view of the actual rate and direction of temperature change.