So what causes global warming? I am not a scientist (nor a Scientologist) but I would like to forward a theory.
First, I am not convinced we are having global warming. I am also not convinced we are having global cooling, either. But I do believe that, just as the human body has different tempedratures under differing conditions, the Earth's surface temperature also changes. I do not believe that we will suffer a catastrophe. However, if the Earth did cool down into an ice age or heat up to melt the polar caps, humans will be long gone. We can't handle extreme temperature changes. We thrive at 65-70 degrees F. Much colder and we have to put on extra layers of clothing; much warmer and we're dying of thirst. I think the animals will outlive humans while plants will survive long after the animals.
The Earth's crust is about 30 miles thick. Yep, the Earth is pretty thin-skinned. The atmosphere is only about 50 miles thick and that's on a good day. So the atmosphere is just about the same thickness, if not density, as the crust. Yet there is a hot, molten core of magma and molten iron that lies just under the crust. The core is about 8,000 miles in diameter! My theory is that any significant changes to the surface temperature will be effected by the core. It may be heating up; it may be cooling down. But it will be the key to the future of this planet. Either way, we will all be dead before it happens.
Also, even if the polar caps melt, there are significantly fewer cubic feet of liquid in all of that ice than cubic feet of water in the oceans. If it is hot enough to melt the ice caps then there will also be significant evaporation so as to keep everthing equal. And since water vapor cannot escape the atmosphere it will just recondense and fall as rain possibly in desert regions.
One thing that makes me curious about the traditional global warming crowd: if we're damaging the atmosphere so severly that the sun's rays are gonna cook us then how come spacecraft outside of the atmosphere have cold skin temperatures even with full solar exposure?
Nest time: An open letter to President Bush.
