JPL has recently released an interactive flash time machine(click on climate time machine). It shows various aspects of our earths climate at different points in history. here are my thoughts on it all:
Ice Cap melt
The ice melt time machine displays the size of the cap from 1979 to 2007. In this 28 year period, the caps have shrunk significantly. Note that it is not displaying the size of the northern ice cap, but rather the size of the cap in the summer when it is at its lowest point in the year. On an unrelated note, Supposedly there is a 50/50 chance of having a completely ice-free arctic this year. I don’t think this has any affect on our lives. There is actually a benefit in that we can more easily navigate the northern waters. A big downside is that we’ll have less fresh water up north, but who goes to the arctic for fresh water? We still have Antarctica.
Sea Level
In an animation of the pacific water level from 1996 to 2006, we get to see the variations of sea level height over a ten year period. I will admit there seems to be a small increase, but not too much more. The variations are inconsistant and generally show no pattern. It is a very odd way of presenting the information. What I think is cool is that there is somewhat of a ‘flow’ of the variations. IF you look closely, you’ll notice how the water variations are flowing from east to west (or from right to left if you want) I wonder how this instrument collected its data. Because it looks as if the water surface vatiations are being pulled around by Earths inner mantle! Which sounds more wild than it actually is. Doesn’t it make sense that a certain area in the ocean with a higher or lower sea level is experiencing a higher level of gravity. Of course, whether or not the gravitational force is the moon or not remains to be answered. On second thought, I do not think that earths gravity fluctuates enough to cause such differences. I have no idea. (but it’s cool!)
CO2 Emissions
(just when i need to do sub-script, WordPress fails me)
The CO2 emissions haven’t been recorded for very long so we only get the past 16 years. However there is lots of change in these 16 years:
- The US goes up from 1,300,000 thousand metric tons, to 1,650,000 metric tons.
- The UK generally hasn’t gone far from the 160,000 thousand metric tons
- India has more than tripled its output from 95,000 to 366,000
- Russia has actually managed to output less than half as much from 900,000 to 400,000
- and the big one: china has boomed from 400,000 to over 1,300,000! That is over three times as much!
Keep China in mind while reviewing the next section, average temperature change.
Average Global Temperature
Things don’t look too bad on this graph. Until you go to 1990 – when the whole thing gets ugly. Global temperature seems to have risen everywhere, an each year after this only grows hotter. (i do believe 2008 might turn out to be a deviation from this trend, as our winter, and summer have been unusually cool) 1990 is the year when india and china have already doubled output. – If I’m wrong on this, please comment. But in any case, our activities will continue to warm the Earth. Weather or not this is great cause for alarm is unknown. With the lower than average sunspot count, we’re currently cooling down. With a little more solar activity we’ll swelter like a car with it’s heat on driving in the desert.
