When we think about climate change it's easy to wonder what happened in the past. This week we are going to learn more about how our climate has changed over the last 4.5 billion years.
The Earth's climate has changed many times before. There have been times when most of the planet was covered in ice, and there have also been much warmer periods. Over at least the last years, temperatures and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have increased and decreased in a cyclical pattern.
To understand this cyclical pattern the BBC has published a series of documentaries on snowball Earth. Link or Youtube
Snowball Earth describes the coldest climate inmaginable. In the distant past the Earth froze over from pole to pole.
The Earth's climate has changed many times before. There have been times when most of the planet was covered in ice, and there have also been much warmer periods. Over at least the last years, temperatures and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have increased and decreased in a cyclical pattern.
To understand this cyclical pattern the BBC has published a series of documentaries on snowball Earth. Link or Youtube
Snowball Earth describes the coldest climate inmaginable. In the distant past the Earth froze over from pole to pole.
But, how could it be possible?
We know that our climate is controlled by some feedbacks and cycles, particulary in this case, the ice albedo feedback, the water cycle and the carbon dioxide cycle.
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| ICE ALBEDO FEEDBACK |
These cycles can be summarised in this diagram which explain the process of the snowball Earth theory:
Amazingly, the Earth is capable of selfregulating, with a series of mechanisms that work together and surprisingly gases like carbon dioxide played a powerful role in governing global climate.
Further information in these links;
Snowball Earth
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/ancient_earth/Snowball_Earth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dv0e-zGGgjQ
http://globalwarmingsimplified.weebly.com/
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