Within the past fifty years of human intervention, carbon dioxide concentration levels have nearly doubled. So what is the big deal? Humans still exist, the air is still breathable, and mortality rates have never been higher. Mark Bowen is a physicist from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He wrote his book Thin Ice in 2003 to explain the science of global warming. Bowen was part of the Ice Core Paleoclimatology Research Group lead by Lonnie Thompson, a leading paleoclimatologist, to drill for ice cores in some of the harshest regions of the world. The team has recovered over 7,000 meters of ice core since 1973. One of the most significant of these cores coming from Vostok, Antarctica. It is so significant because it is among the oldest
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The Mauna Loa record, also known as the Keeling Curve, is part of the last fifty years on Bowen superimposed graph. What the Mauna Loa record shows is that human intervention caused a spike in carbon dioxide levels. Carbon dioxide levels are nearly double that it has ever been in half a million year. Normal peak carbon dioxide levels should be around 280 ppm at this stage of the Milankovich cycle, and yet on 2003 at the levels were 373 ppm (289). Currently the carbon dioxide levels are 398 ppm and on an upward …show more content…
The three forces are the earth eccentricity, obliquity, and precision. Eccentricity of the earth refers to how the earth deviates its elliptical orbit around the sun. When the earth has a more elongated orbital path it causes longer and colder seasons, and vice versa. The eccentricity cycle is the part of the Milankovitch forces that last 100,000 years. Obliquity refers to the tilt of the earth long its axis relative to how it is facing the sun. Heating periods are caused by the gradually leaning of the earths tilt toward 24.5 degrees from the normal 22.4 degrees along its axis, so a 2-2.5 change in degrees. The obliquity cycle refreshes every 41,000 years. Currently the earth is tilt at a 23.5 degrees angle along its axis and decreasing. The precision of the Earth or sometimes called the wobble effect refers to how well the earth stays along the orbit, moving inward or outward from the sun. The precision of the orbit is mainly “driven by tidal forces which are influenced by our sun and moon” (OSS
The Mauna Loa record, also known as the Keeling Curve, is part of the last fifty years on Bowen superimposed graph. What the Mauna Loa record shows is that human intervention caused a spike in carbon dioxide levels. Carbon dioxide levels are nearly double that it has ever been in half a million year. Normal peak carbon dioxide levels should be around 280 ppm at this stage of the Milankovich cycle, and yet on 2003 at the levels were 373 ppm (289). Currently the carbon dioxide levels are 398 ppm and on an upward …show more content…
The three forces are the earth eccentricity, obliquity, and precision. Eccentricity of the earth refers to how the earth deviates its elliptical orbit around the sun. When the earth has a more elongated orbital path it causes longer and colder seasons, and vice versa. The eccentricity cycle is the part of the Milankovitch forces that last 100,000 years. Obliquity refers to the tilt of the earth long its axis relative to how it is facing the sun. Heating periods are caused by the gradually leaning of the earths tilt toward 24.5 degrees from the normal 22.4 degrees along its axis, so a 2-2.5 change in degrees. The obliquity cycle refreshes every 41,000 years. Currently the earth is tilt at a 23.5 degrees angle along its axis and decreasing. The precision of the Earth or sometimes called the wobble effect refers to how well the earth stays along the orbit, moving inward or outward from the sun. The precision of the orbit is mainly “driven by tidal forces which are influenced by our sun and moon” (OSS