Climate Change of the Cosmic Kind

I agree with this. There is significantly more going on than the pure-anthropocentric viewpoint. The planet has done this itself many, many, many times...and, at times, far more rapidly.

The fact that we are a sort of preemptive trigger I will cede, but the fact is that -- now the process has been put in motion -- the Earth is on its own autopilot at this point. The things we are doing now will slow the process so we can deal with it more effectively, but not stop it. I do not believe it can be stopped at this point, just mitigated.

What it means that 'climate change' has been given a sort of fast-forward, we can only speculate.

A history of the CO2-global warming debate. A passage from it:

"It seemed that rises or falls in carbon dioxide levels had not initiated the glacial cycles.In fact most scientists had long since abandoned that hypothesis. In the 1960s, painstaking studies had shown that subtle shifts in our planet's orbit around the Sun (called "Milankovitch cycles") set the timing of ice ages. The amount of sunlight that fell in a given latitude and season varied predictably over millenia, altering how long snow ands sea ice lingered in the spring, which crucially affected how much sunlight the surface absorbed. The fact that carbon dioxide levels lagged behind the orbital effect should have been no surprise, since a change in the temperature would change the gas level. For one thing, warmer oceans would evaporate out more gas. For another, as Arctic tundra warmed up it would likewise emit CO2 and methane. The ice cores now showed, as theorists had predicted since the 19th century, that a powerful feedback cycle was amplifying the effect of the cyclical changes in sunlight. Even a small change in the gas level would bring further changes in the global heat balance, which would in turn alter the gas level, which... and so forth. This suggested how tiny shifts in the Earth’s orbit had set the timing of the enormous swings of glacial cycles.

Or, more ominously, how a change in the gas level initiated by humanity might be amplified through a temperature feedback loop. The ancient ice ages were the reverse of our current situation, where humanity was initiating the change by adding greenhouse gases. As the gas level rose, temperature would rise with a time lag — although only a few decades, not centuries, for the rates of change were now enormously faster than the orbital shifts that brought ice ages."

Whether or not global warming is anthropogenic in origin is a fairly moot point (however harped upon by those attempting to hijack this phenomenon for their own financial gain). The fact remains incontrovertible that CO2 does, in fact, absorb infrared radiation. This has been proven with simple experiments involving tubes of the gas having light shined through, and measuring the radiation spectrum and intra-tube temperature before-and-after.

An asteroid strike, crossing of the galactic plane, shifting of Earth orbit or Sun-orientation...any of these things are scenarios that were on our doorstep (however ignorantly) before any anthropocentric causes began to be anything like an issue.

What we have, essentially, done is to add yet one more way the world might begin this type of transition, and to ensure that any sort of climate change will be vastly complicated because of our own hubris and pollution.

"You must *be* the change you wish to see in the world."
Mahatma Gandhi

Thanks for bringing this up ST. Bringing this subject up at most social occasions seems very dangerous, I've had a few uncomfortable conversations with people about it, and got harsh reactions. Glad to see we can give it some press here.

Saw this earlier in a news post's comment section, and I'm glad you posted it here. Super interesting concept of these large rocks being myth generators and life carrying at the same time.

Climate change, in itself, is not likely to end all life on Earth. The planet's climate has been changing since day one. But usually it changes quite slowly, so humans and other species have time to adapt. Unfortunately, at this point in history, much of the human population lives near the shore, where rising sea levels can have a devestating effect. While our mono-culture, petro-business based food industry is extremely brittle and could collapse from a major quick shift in climate. It's also true that climate change is happening in concert with the introduction of massive pollutants into the eco-system, increasing the stress on endangered species, which in turn could lead to a collapse of the entire food chain.

It's true that Earth has seen massive waves of extinction before, and somehow the planet didn't end up a dead rock like Venus.

But that doesn't mean that today's climate change isn't a significant threat. Especially to us hairless apes.