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wacki :
What do you make of the argument we are warming up because we're coming out of an ice age? Also what are your thoughts on methane gas from cows and other sources?
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The agriculture/food aspect of climate change is the perfect argument why ardent conservationists are out of touch with reality. As long as we continue to use 6 barrels of oil to grow a cow we will have problems. Change those 6 barrels to biodiesel and things look a lot better. As long as we continue to use fossil fuels to power our cars or create fertilizer any behavioral modifications on the individual scale will only delay the inevitable.
If you want to understand the ice ages this is a good book that reads like a novel:
http://www.amazon.com/Ice-Ages-Solvi.../dp/0674440757
Realclimate.org and Grist Mill's Coby Beck have several posts about why the "coming out of the ice age" argument doesn't hold water.
Here is an easy to read but incomplete post from newscientist:
http://environment.newscientist.com/...change/dn11645
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GoodCallYouWin,
That imbrie and imbrie book is really good. But if you want a summary in a few lines this is the best I can do:
The earths orbit is constantly changing. The shape of the orbit changes from an ellipse to a circle and the earth also wobbles around it's axis like a spinning top wobbles when it's running out of steam. This is the "trigger" of the ice ages. This basic astronomical theory was developed in 1842 by Joseph Adhemar and later expanded on by James Croll. Croll was particularly important as he was able to show that the orbits just started a process and then growing ice sheets multiplied the cooling effect by reflecting light into space. In 1904 came Milutin Milankovitch who spent the next 30 years developing mathematical models to predict at what stages of the earths orbit there would be ice ages. After he finished his work geologists uncovered proof from rocks, sediment, and the oceans that showed his predictions were correct.
There is a lot more to the story but that book gave me a whole new level of respect for geologists.