Comments on: Are Walruses the New Polar Bear? http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2009/09/19/are-walruses-the-new-polar-bear/ Where science collides with life, slams into culture, crashes with politics, and gets totaled. Sun, 21 Mar 2010 13:58:57 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Are Walruses the New Polar Bear? | The Intersection | Discover … | walruses http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2009/09/19/are-walruses-the-new-polar-bear/comment-page-1/#comment-32199 Are Walruses the New Polar Bear? | The Intersection | Discover … | walruses Sat, 19 Sep 2009 23:51:27 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/?p=2771#comment-32199 [...] this link: Are Walruses the New Polar Bear? | The Intersection | Discover ... Tags: federation, global-warming, reaches-its, sea-ice, sundt, warming, world, world-wildlife [...] [...] this link: Are Walruses the New Polar Bear? | The Intersection | Discover … Tags: federation, global-warming, reaches-its, sea-ice, sundt, warming, world, world-wildlife [...]

]]> By: Erasmussimo http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2009/09/19/are-walruses-the-new-polar-bear/comment-page-1/#comment-32196 Erasmussimo Sat, 19 Sep 2009 19:37:07 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/?p=2771#comment-32196 Morgan Bloomer, you're quite right that the earth has had many previous episodes that were significantly warmer than today as well as episodes that were significantly colder than today. This does not call into question, however, the notion that current warming is caused by human activities. After all, a boulder can roll down a hill for entirely natural reasons, or it can roll down a hill because I pushed it. The fact that it can roll down a hill for natural reasons does not mean that I could not have pushed it. Another thing to remember is that there were no people, no civilizations, no buildings, farmland, or port facilities when those previous warm periods came. Sure, the earth could survive a dramatic warming quite easily -- but could our civilization? Morgan Bloomer, you’re quite right that the earth has had many previous episodes that were significantly warmer than today as well as episodes that were significantly colder than today. This does not call into question, however, the notion that current warming is caused by human activities. After all, a boulder can roll down a hill for entirely natural reasons, or it can roll down a hill because I pushed it. The fact that it can roll down a hill for natural reasons does not mean that I could not have pushed it.

Another thing to remember is that there were no people, no civilizations, no buildings, farmland, or port facilities when those previous warm periods came. Sure, the earth could survive a dramatic warming quite easily — but could our civilization?

]]> By: Morgan Bloomer http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2009/09/19/are-walruses-the-new-polar-bear/comment-page-1/#comment-32189 Morgan Bloomer Sat, 19 Sep 2009 18:37:51 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/?p=2771#comment-32189 Dear Mr. Mooney, I'm wondering if you have ever heard of Paleoclimatology, the study of ancient climates. The reason that I ask is that in all I the reading of newspapers, science magazines and scientific papers, all written by well respected researchers, not one has ever point out that according to the majority of scientist who study ancient climates, the earth is in a upward temperature swing. The following quotation is from the Paleontological Science Center, also see Timeline of Glaciation, Wikipedia How do we reconstruct climate? • Tree Rings • Glacial Ice Cores • Ocean Sediments - The ratio of oxygen 16 to oxygen 18 preserved in the steady rain of dead organisms. • Radiocarbon dates of organic material • Pollen samples found in packrat middens and lake bed samples. • Variations in desert varnish coatings found on rocks in the arid southwest • Variations found in peatbog deposits • Sedimentary rock records. Story Lines: • For much of Earth's history, the world has been ice-free (even at the poles) but these iceless periods have been interrupted by several major glaciation periods (called glacial epochs) and we are in one now. Each glacial epoch consists of multiple advances and retreats of ice fields. These ice fields tend to wax and wane in approximate 100,000, 41,000, and 21,000 year cycles. Each advance of ice is popularly known in the press as an "ice age" but it is important to note that these multiple events are just variations of the same glacial epoch. The retreat of ice during a glacial epoch is called an inter-glacial period and this is our PRESENT DAY CLIMATE system.. • The current Plio-Pleistocene Glacial Epoch had it's beginning about 3.2 million years ago and is probably linked to the tectonic construction of the Isthmus of Panama which prevented the circulation of Atlantic and Pacific waters and ultimately triggered a slow sequence of events that eventually led to cooling of the atmosphere and the formation of new ice fields by about 2.5 million years ago. • So far we have had around 15 to 20 individual major advances and subsequent retreats of the ice field in our current glacial epoch. The last major advance of glacial ice peaked about 18,000 years ago and since that time the ice has generally been retreating (albeit with some short term interruptions). Best regards Morgan Bloomer Dear Mr. Mooney,

I’m wondering if you have ever heard of Paleoclimatology, the study of ancient climates. The reason that I ask is that in all I the reading of newspapers, science magazines and scientific papers, all written by well respected researchers, not one has ever point out that according to the majority of scientist who study ancient climates, the earth is in a upward temperature swing.

The following quotation is from the Paleontological Science Center, also see Timeline of Glaciation, Wikipedia

How do we reconstruct climate?
• Tree Rings
• Glacial Ice Cores
• Ocean Sediments – The ratio of oxygen 16 to oxygen 18 preserved in the steady rain of dead organisms.
• Radiocarbon dates of organic material
• Pollen samples found in packrat middens and lake bed samples.
• Variations in desert varnish coatings found on rocks in the arid southwest
• Variations found in peatbog deposits
• Sedimentary rock records.

Story Lines:
• For much of Earth’s history, the world has been ice-free (even at the poles) but these iceless periods have been interrupted by several major glaciation periods (called glacial epochs) and we are in one now. Each glacial epoch consists of multiple advances and retreats of ice fields. These ice fields tend to wax and wane in approximate 100,000, 41,000, and 21,000 year cycles. Each advance of ice is popularly known in the press as an “ice age” but it is important to note that these multiple events are just variations of the same glacial epoch. The retreat of ice during a glacial epoch is called an inter-glacial period and this is our PRESENT DAY CLIMATE system..
• The current Plio-Pleistocene Glacial Epoch had it’s beginning about 3.2 million years ago and is probably linked to the tectonic construction of the Isthmus of Panama which prevented the circulation of Atlantic and Pacific waters and ultimately triggered a slow sequence of events that eventually led to cooling of the atmosphere and the formation of new ice fields by about 2.5 million years ago.
• So far we have had around 15 to 20 individual major advances and subsequent retreats of the ice field in our current glacial epoch. The last major advance of glacial ice peaked about 18,000 years ago and since that time the ice has generally been retreating (albeit with some short term interruptions).

Best regards

Morgan Bloomer

]]>