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Solar System's Path May Have Spurred Ice Ages
ImproperShutdown writes "Space.com reports that a physicist has found a correlation between the amount of cosmic rays reaching the Earth, as it passes through the spiral arms of the Milky Way, and the planet's ice ages over the last billion years. Apparently, as the Solar System passes through the higher density spiral arm regions, it receives more cosmic rays from the higher density of supernovae that have occurred in the region. This larger flux of cosmic rays ionizes the Earth's atmosphere more, which makes it more cloudy and cools down the Earth."
The question of global warming is still out.
Really? We know two things.
1: The world is getting hotter.
2: We're spitting out pollutants that, among other things, can theoretically raise the tempature of the world.
Let's do the prudent thing and reduce them first; even if the world still gets hotter, at least it'll be a mite bit cleaner.
There are many factors that influence climate. But we know for certain that CO2 levels have increased dramatically already, due to human activity, and that increase continue. If we don't stop that, that will lead to massive, unpredictable changes in our climate and that just can't be good. Looking at temperature records is secondary.
The world is getting hotter.
So?
Let's do the prudent thing and reduce them first; even if the world still gets hotter, at least it'll be a mite bit cleaner.
It's a question of cost and benefit. Time spent figuring out ways to limit CO2 emissions is time not spent on other things, like figuring out the cure for cancer. Nothing is free, everything has positive and negative effects.
Personally, I think yes, we should tax products which generate CO2 emissions and tax cutting down trees which also increases the CO2 in the atmosphere. Spend the money researching the problem, fixing it, and planting trees. But the jury is still out on whether or not there even is a problem in the first place.