Fact #28

The only thing constant about temperatures over 600 million years is that they have been constantly changing.

This is a recurring theme of an Earth with constantly changing temperature. A review of this chart showing four billion years of temperature data reveals that the Earth usually has been either very warm or very cold, oscillating between very warm “hothouse” conditions and much colder “icehouse” or “snowball Earth” conditions. During hot-house periods, high temperatures prevail and ice is rare. During icehouse periods such as the present, the Earth cycles between long periods of glaciation and shorter interglacial periods of somewhat warmer temperatures, but with extensive ice at both poles. The current “icehouse” phase has lasted 3.5 million years.

Fortunately for mankind, we are currently in a blessedly warm interglacial period. For that, we should be thankful.

Source(s):

Visit our NEW   CO2 Learning Center!

 

Take Our Climate Quiz!

The Great Climate Change Debate is one of the “hottest” issues before the public and policy makers today. How much to you know about the subject? Or possibly, the real question is one attributed to American humorist Will Rogers:

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. it’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

Find out your Climate IQ by taking our Climate Quiz: the answers may surprise you.

Take the Quiz Now →

Subscribe to Our Informative Weekly Newsletter Here:

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.