Thursday, January 18, 2018

Climate Change: Man Made & Natural

Yesterday I listened to CBC Radio’s Mainstreet program in on Climate Change, and decided to send an email to express my concerns:

We constantly hear about the “man made” climate change, however very little is said about our present day climate change as a result of natural causes:

According to experts, the last glacial period at its maximum involved glaciers up to 3 kilometers high that covered much of North America and Eurasia.  Until recently a focus was on isostatic depression (caused by the enormous weight of these glaciers at the time), and to isostatic rebound (as a result of the glaciers retreat, an event that is still occurring today).  And now note this excerpt from a related Wikipedia article, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-glacial_rebound:
Recently, the term "post-glacial rebound" is gradually being replaced by the term "glacial isostatic adjustment". This is in recognition that the response of the Earth to glacial loading and unloading is not limited to the upward rebound movement, but also involves downward land movement... 
The article provides a model that shows the areas of land that’s in the process of rebounding and resettling.  It is a major concern is as to why the “miswording” in the first place ... by experts no less!  Especially considering that land in the process of “resettling” are densely populated areas adjacent to the ocean and so detrimental to the safety of people.

I don’t fully accept the model’s version that shows a circle of land areas that are resettling, one that includes where I live here in Nova Scotia where evidence of glaciers being here exists— huge rocks scattered outside my home in Prospect, abound.  And in fact, images showing the Maximum extent of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurentide_Ice_Sheet) has Nova Scotia under the massive glacier that covered millions of square kilometers across most of Canada and a large portion of the northern United States.   Nova Scotia therefore is not be part of the isostatic adjusment/downward movement as the model puts forth.  The downward movement is happening further out and to the edge of  the North American Plate, much of which is at the bottom of the ocean.   Other evidence points to this being correct— Ocean temperatures rising as a result of the isostatic downward movement occurring with the edges of the Plate that grind against adjacent plates, resulting in friction ... and heat!  This heating of the ocean sets off a chain reaction of events:  greater evaporation ...results in increased sinking of salt residue... results in faster ocean currents ... results in more wind and hurricanes etc..   From my educated perspective, it’s places like Florida and Cuba that are in grave danger— they lay dangerously close to the North American plate edge that’s divergent (pulling away from the adjacent plate edge that would otherwise restrict the downward movement).

If you venture to this site, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacier#Glacial_erosion, you will see that there’s a complete section, Isostatic rebound, that has no mention of isostatic adjustment/downward movement.  Do we dare put our faith in the experts?!  We need to be proactive ... we need to protect ourselves in the event that the next glacial period is not thousands of years away as the experts claim, but just around the corner.  

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