Thursday, June 10, 2004

Posted here Thursday, June 10, 2004 at 1:22:37 PM     New Ice age, global climate picture http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99995094 As long as humans do not mess it up, the Earth's climate is set at fair for the next 15,000 years. That is according to information extracted from the oldest ice core ever drilled. The Antarctic core is the first to reach as far back as a warm period with characteristics similar to our own interglacial. So it should help make more accurate predictions about when to expect the next deep freeze. The ice core, drilled from a feature in central Antarctica called Dome C, is around 3 kilometres long and 10 centimetres wide. Changes in the relative proportions of hydrogen isotopes in the ice layers allow scientists to compile a complete record of Antarctic temperatures going back 740,000 years. The core shows the waxing and waning of eight ice ages. Most critically for making predictions about our climate, it is the first core to record a period known as Termination V, around 430,000 years ago. Getting warming and cooling accurate, and seeing the hurrying or delaying effects of either, will be a driver of society, probably for the rest of humanity's life. The problems I see are two 1. paying attention tends to support technocratic centralist governance. Are we really ready for star trek? 2. it tends to support precluding other directions. For example, to understand that the earth has a cycle supports business, because business thrives on change and providing tech solutions to material issues. We could have opted for other directions, for example, a society focused on the deep understanding of poetry, so that all children memorized, structures were known, and the history fussed over. Humanity should be flexible enough, but may not be, to chose its path wisely. This does not mean pretending that climate change isn't real, but it does imply a shifted interest. After all, which is more real, poetry, or that the sun will eventually go out? ********