EMH
Diamond Member
- Apr 5, 2021
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The first part is understanding what is climate and what is weather. Climate is the parameters of Earth that allow certain ranges of weather. We don't get Cat 10 canes now, but we would if Earth had no ice.
What are the parameters of climate that can change?
Ocean levels
Atmospheric thickness
Temperature
Humidity
What controls those?
The amount of ice on the planet. Period. Ocean level is 100% inversely correlated to Earth ice content (on land, not sea ice, which is pathetically small) - duh. Trapped in ice age glacier is compressed gas. When it snows 10 feet, you can compress that into a few inches of ice, and the rest is air, which also gets compressed, when it is under 100k years of ice layers on top of it. When that ice melts, that compressed air is released back into the atmosphere, making it denser. Clearly more ice makes things colder, but it is the discrepancy between the polar circles today that is key to understanding Earth climate change and how it occurs.
90% of Earth Ice is on Antarctica
7% is on Greenland
97% of Earth ice is on the two land masses closest to the poles.... and land moves.
Air that passes over the Antarctic Circle cools 50F (58F from the above image) more than air that passes over Arctic.
Antarctica also puts 9 times the ice into the oceans, some 46 times the H2O the Mississippi River puts in the Gulf, and that ice is colder than Arctic ice.
The Antarctic Circle cools Earth much more than the Arctic Circle does.
All about land near the poles. And land moves.
What are the parameters of climate that can change?
Ocean levels
Atmospheric thickness
Temperature
Humidity
What controls those?
The amount of ice on the planet. Period. Ocean level is 100% inversely correlated to Earth ice content (on land, not sea ice, which is pathetically small) - duh. Trapped in ice age glacier is compressed gas. When it snows 10 feet, you can compress that into a few inches of ice, and the rest is air, which also gets compressed, when it is under 100k years of ice layers on top of it. When that ice melts, that compressed air is released back into the atmosphere, making it denser. Clearly more ice makes things colder, but it is the discrepancy between the polar circles today that is key to understanding Earth climate change and how it occurs.
90% of Earth Ice is on Antarctica
7% is on Greenland
97% of Earth ice is on the two land masses closest to the poles.... and land moves.
Air that passes over the Antarctic Circle cools 50F (58F from the above image) more than air that passes over Arctic.
Antarctica also puts 9 times the ice into the oceans, some 46 times the H2O the Mississippi River puts in the Gulf, and that ice is colder than Arctic ice.
The Antarctic Circle cools Earth much more than the Arctic Circle does.
All about land near the poles. And land moves.