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Orbits of Jupiter and Venus Affect Earth's Climate, Says Study (usatoday.com)

According to a new study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, gravitational tugs from the planets Jupiter and Venus gradually affect Earth's climate and life forms. The phenomenon occurs every 405,000 years and has been going on for at least 215 million years. USA Today reports: Jupiter and Venus are such strong influences because of their size and proximity. Venus is the nearest planet to us -- at its farthest, only about 162 million miles -- and roughly similar in mass. Jupiter is much farther away, but is the Solar System's largest planet. The study says that every 405,000 years, due to wobbles in our orbit caused by the gravitational pulls of the two planets, seasonal differences here on Earth become more intense. Summers are hotter and winters colder; dry times drier, wet times wetter. At the height of the cycle, more rain falls in the tropics, allowing lakes there to fill up. This compares to the other end of the cycle, when seasonal rains in the tropics "are less and lakes have much less of a tendency to become as full," [study lead author Dennis] Kent said. The results showed that the 405,000-year cycle is the most regular astronomical pattern linked to the Earth's annual turn around the sun, he said. Right now, we are in the middle of the cycle, as the most recent peak was around 200,000 years ago.

107 of 208 comments (clear)

  1. Tax system to tax gravity... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    In 3. 2. 1.

    1. Re:Tax system to tax gravity... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Im NOT joking the joke is on everybody buying into the carbon emmision taxes crap over the global warming scare. Our little planet is doing her puberty thing and we are along for the ride. Just wait and see where the north pole is gonna endup.

    2. Re:Tax system to tax gravity... by Vinegar+Joe · · Score: 5, Funny

      The Solar System Does Not Effect Climate A Whole Lot

      Jupiter and Venus's orbits might have some *slight* effects but are nothing compared to the billions of smoke stacks spewing carbon into the air.

      You forget about that big yellow thing up in the sky?

      --
      "The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
    3. Re:Tax system to tax gravity... by Joce640k · · Score: 1, Insightful

      So it's Jupiter and Venus that's putting all the extra CO2 into the atmosphere? Thanks for sorting that out for us.

      PS: I read somewhere that mars is responsible for all the plastic bottles floating in the ocean. We can probably relax about that one, too.

      --
      No sig today...
    4. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      CO2 is not pollution, it's essential to life.

    5. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It's the quantities that make the poison. Especially in complex systems like our climate or biological life you often can't simply reduce things to 'this is always good' or 'this is always bad'.

      For example you can also argue that water is essential to life. And indeed all life we know requires water as a solvent and carrier for other essential molecules.
      But there's instances where there can be too much water. And I'm not even talking about things like floods here.
      There's phenomenons like hyperhydration, when a person drinks so much water for example. It can dilute the electrolytes in your system so far that your neutrons can't function properly any more. And it's potentially fatal.

    6. Re:Tax system to tax gravity... by michelcolman · · Score: 5, Funny

      Not sure about the bottles, but lots of candy bar wrappers are indeed from Mars.

    7. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Challenge to your assertion: have, in the past, been periods with much higher concentrations of CO2 and simultaneously a thriving ecosystem?
      (The answer is 'yes')

    8. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Challenge to your assertion: did that ecosystem have 10 billion humans in it, largely living in the places which were flooded back then but not now?

      (The answer is 'no')

    9. Re:Tax system to tax gravity... by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 1
      something that doesn't affect Earth's climate!

      Bollywood movies?

      --
      Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
    10. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      Yeah, and where are they now? Dead. Because the climate changed on them (the cause for that is unimportant) and they didn't have the smarts to try and do something about it to keep the climate right for them. Which side do you want to be on? The natural dead side or the altered alive one?

      --
      Wanna buy a shirt?
      https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
    11. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Still an oversimplification here, because it omits the details that matter to us humans.

      Sure, evolution is a strong process and will continue to go on pretty much no matter what. I'd take an enormous and drastic cataclysm to destroy life on this planet to a point where it can't possibly recover. Some species may go extinct, others may thrive, even replace them. Maybe in total there will be more life than before.

      But the big question is if we'll like the process and outcome or not, if we can adapt or not. Because nature doesn't give a shit about us. It doesn't care about anything really, because it's simply not a feature of the universe.

    12. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by jellomizer · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That was a different eco system. Mostly trees and plants. Most of the animals were in the water.
      Also these changes took thousands of years to take place. While we are expecting changes in under a hundred years.
      Will man made climate change kill all life? No but much of its diversity will be killed because it is changing faster then they can adapt.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    13. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      No one said they weren’t.
      However the polutition they have can be managed and controlled better then dumping pollution into the air.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    14. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by crypticedge · · Score: 3, Insightful

      So is chlorine, but it's still a poison.

      So is iodine, but it's still a poison

      So is sodium, but it's still able to be a poison.

      Just because something is essential in trace amounts doesn't mean we should flood the air or water with it. The quantities matter, and it doesn't take much to turn the air unbreathable.

    15. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by Barsteward · · Score: 1

      ROFL.. a study by a pro-nuclear group

      --
      "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)
    16. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by TimMD909 · · Score: 2

      It's easy to forget about, as it's all but invisible from the basement.

    17. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by tsa · · Score: 1

      I donâ(TM)t know your joking but your spelling affects me greatly. I could hardly understand what you meant.

      --

      -- Cheers!

    18. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by satcat · · Score: 1

      What's your point, though? No one expects CO2-induced climate change to outright kill all life. But it will massively disrupt the current stable ecosystem, and human civilization. What were the global temperatures during those periods of much higher CO2? And what were the sea levels? What effects will changes to those have on current ecosystems, and human civilization? Also those periods of higher CO2 levels are at least 800,000 years ago.

    19. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Climate skeptics more eco-friendly than global-warming alarmists: study

      "A study by Cornell and the University of Michigan researchers found that those “highly concerned” about climate change were less likely to engage in recycling and other eco-friendly behaviors than global-warming skeptics."

      LOL!

    20. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

      This, and ...

      Humans are intelligent, adaptable and mobile.

      While they can move about and change diets and stuff, appreciate that somebody has already planted a flag in the ground and those sovereign citizens aren't sharing or relinquishing resources and real estate to immigrants without a fight.

      --
      It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
    21. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      Challenge to your assertion: have, in the past, been periods with much higher concentrations of CO2 and simultaneously a thriving ecosystem? (The answer is 'yes')

      Would you have been able to live there? The answer is "NO", unless of course you are a small rodent or a dinosaur - considering you're a science denier, you are probably both.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    22. Re:Tax system to tax gravity... by syn3rg · · Score: 1

      lol --- I wish I had mod points...

      --
      The contents of this message have been doubly encrypted by ROT13
    23. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by Bengie · · Score: 3, Informative

      Natural climate changes takes hundreds of thousands of years, about the amount of time it took for humans to become distinctly humans. Given another 400,000 years of climate change, I'm sure we could change again. The issue is what normally takes 400,000 years is taking 1-2 centuries. The only times this has happened was during mass extinction events. Maybe this time is different.

    24. Re:Tax system to tax gravity... by Troed · · Score: 1

      While I'm sure it wasn't the GPs intention, "effect" also works in that sentence.

      effect can also be used as a verb to mean to produce or to cause to come into being

      https://www.vocabulary.com/art...

    25. Re:Tax system to tax gravity... by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      But think of all the millions of jobs that Trump's coal industry will bring! *cough*

      More than 1000 a year alone to replace miners who died from Black Lung.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    26. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      It's the quantities that make the poison. Especially in complex systems like our climate or biological life you often can't simply reduce things to 'this is always good' or 'this is always bad'.

      How much is poison? What amount of CO2 in the air is needed to be a poison?

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    27. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Natural climate changes takes hundreds of thousands of years, about the amount of time it took for humans to become distinctly humans.

      They do? Ice covered most of the Northern US just 12,000 years ago, during the last glacial period. Oceans were ~100 meters lower back then, too... Now we're being warned about maybe a meter over 100 years (about the same rate of change as we've seen since the last glacial period) and that it's doomsday!

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    28. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 2

      What's your point, though? No one expects CO2-induced climate change to outright kill all life. But it will massively disrupt the current stable ecosystem

      Wait, the ecosystem is stable? Or, it was? When was that? You do realize we're pretty much through the normal interglacial period, and just 12,000 years ago much of the Northern hemisphere was under hundreds of meters of ice, and the oceans were 100+ meters shallower than now. Is that stable?

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    29. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      Actually, assuming you're talking about 2000-4000 PPM like it was back in the age of dinosaurs, we could absolutely survive as there is a vast wealth of medical data about living in CO2 levels at 2500 to 11,000 PPM.

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    30. Re:Tax system to tax gravity... by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      Not unexpected, they are probably all found with the Milky Way as well...

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    31. Re:Tax system to tax gravity... by Humbubba · · Score: 1

      I really hope they don't try to tax gravity. I try to be funny, God knows, but I left it all at home today.

    32. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      Actually, assuming you're talking about 2000-4000 PPM like it was back in the age of dinosaurs, we could absolutely survive as there is a vast wealth of medical data about living in CO2 levels at 2500 to 11,000 PPM.

      "Toxicity was evaluated in male and female rats" - IOW just as I said you need to be a rat to survive.

      Meanwhile, back in the real world: https://www.kane.co.uk/knowled...

      2,000-5,000 ppm Headaches, sleepiness and stagnant, stale, stuffy air. Poor concentration, loss of attention, increased heart rate and slight nausea may also be present. 5,000 Workplace exposure limit (as 8-hour TWA) in most jurisdictions.

      And last but most certainly not least: what makes you think I was talking about the CO2 level in the first place? The problem is the heat. Land mammals above a certain size can't exist at these temperatures.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    33. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by BoogieChile · · Score: 1

      And then again, no.

    34. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

      Lots of data about submariners and CO2 - where typical levels are 4000 PPM or higher. Not a problem if it's "only" 2500 PPM.

      Now, heat? Never mentioned in this thread until now, but consider elephants, rhinos, and other large land mammals (giraffes, etc) who survive daily at 30+ deg C temperatures. Maybe they move their habitat a few hundred miles North or South, but exist - they definitely can.

      --
      Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
    35. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by Kiwikwi · · Score: 1

      And during that ice age, Earth had to support a human population of 10 million, living in hunter-gatherer cultures.

      But now, since an ice age is such fun, we'll try the same thing, only in the other direction, before the end of the century. Obligatory

    36. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      >

      Now, heat? Never mentioned in this thread until now, but consider elephants, rhinos, and other large land mammals (giraffes, etc) who survive daily at 30+ deg C temperatures. Maybe they move their habitat a few hundred miles North or South, but exist - they definitely can.

      It's not my fault that you hate science, and science hates you.

      --
      Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
    37. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      The problem with moving habitat is that there's people living in the new ideal habitat for pachyderms who really don't want elephants and rhinos wandering around where they live.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    38. Re:Tax system to tax gravity... by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

      But that North may end up in Hawaii. With glaciers.

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    39. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1
      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    40. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by doccus · · Score: 1

      All this hoopla about CO2 yet not a word on bovine flatulence? Or subterranean flatulence? Apparently there's lakes and big holes appearing all over the frozen north (especially Russia) that are farting methane all over. Folks that poo-poo bovine flatulence don't know just how large the issue really is.. (Honest, there's a joke in there somewhere, can't seem to get where though)...

    41. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by satcat · · Score: 1

      Pretty stable over the past few thousand years, suddenly accelerating in a hotter direction.

    42. Re: Tax system to tax gravity... by rickyslashdot · · Score: 1

      "so far that your neutrons can't function properly" . . . ummm, I THINK you meant NEURONS
      Water is a neutron moderator (slowing them down in reactors so they can be captured by Uranium and continue the fission chain reaction), but this action has no real bearing on life processes.
      OTOH, NEURONS are the stuff carrying nerve impulses around the body, and over-hydration (too much water) disrupts the action of the sodium mediated electrical impulses by dropping their relative concentration to a level where the neural firing activity is dampened out.
      A potentially fatal example is the disruption (dampening) of the electrical signals that trigger the heartbeat, which could lead to heart failure and death.

      --
      redneck geek
  2. Told you so by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    See! See! This validates all of astrology!

    1. Re:Told you so by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I foresaw this comment coming. Prophecy fulfilled.

    2. Re:Told you so by bluegutang · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Of course it doesn't. But it helps to explain why, *hundreds of years ago when science barely existed*, intelligent people could take astrology seriously.

      The sun has a massive effect on us, the moon too (light, tides). So why couldn't the other heavenly bodies effect us?

      And they do effect us. But since then, science has managed to quantify that effect. And that effect, it turns out, consists of gravity and pretty much nothing else. Very occasionally, like in this study, that gravity has noticeable effects on our lives.

    3. Re:Told you so by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      That's really old knowledge, you know...

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    4. Re:Told you so by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      And they do effect us.

      And they do affect us.

    5. Re:Told you so by cellocgw · · Score: 1

      What genius modded this Insightful? The story is about a 4E5 year cycle and you think astrologers in the last 3k years observed effects?

      --
      https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
    6. Re:Told you so by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      I don't know that astrologers ever observed effects, frankly. I studied it as a youth, and there wasn't any empiricism in anything I read. When the US started running the draft by birthday (in the Vietnam years) we were joking that, astrologically, that was concentrating traits. I never heard anything about that empirically.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  3. Re:Well well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, it doesn't. What it does is show amazingly well how desperately some people will cling to anything in order to explain away things they don't want to take responsibility for with some ridiculously irrelevant theory rather than deal with the facts which demands a change in behaviour.

    The mere idea that these planets would have greater influence than us pumping the atmosphere full of known greenhouse gasses is outright moronic. But of course people like you jump for it, because you get to say "the dog ate my homework!", or in this case "it was all the planets fault, we can't do anything about it so let's party and forget about the whole thing." Because that's the kind of retard you are.

  4. Abian redux by Oddhack · · Score: 2

    Posters who date from the Usenet era may remember Alexander Abian, known for "VENUS MUST BE MOVED INTO AN EARTH-LIKE ORBIT" and other kookery. If there's an afterlife, I imagine he's capering and kicking his heels high at the moment.

  5. Re:Well well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    CO2 in it self isn't a problem. But the volume of it which we add to it is a huge problem because that in turn leads to other, worse problems.

    Saying that CO2 isn't a problem is just showing that you either failed high school physics and don't understand the greenhouse effect, or that you are wilfully ignoring the problem.

    What it boils down to is what we can do. We can't stop the ice caps from melting when we reach that point, we can't stop the acidification of the oceans. But we can at least limit how much CO2 we add to the atmosphere, which will help with those issues.

  6. Re:Wait, where are we heading now? by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1
    I guess we will have to wait a few thousand years for the affects to be measurable enough and then we can find out.

    At the height of the cycle, more rain falls in the tropics, allowing lakes there to fill up. This compares to the other end of the cycle, when seasonal rains in the tropics "are less and lakes have much less of a tendency to become as full," Kent said. The results showed that the 405,000-year cycle is the most regular astronomical pattern linked to the Earth's annual turn around the sun, he said. Right now, we are in the middle of the cycle, as the most recent peak was around 200,000 years ago.

    I'd say they mean the peak is when it's the hottest hot, wettest wet. So now we are at the minimum? Coldest hot, driest wet. So things shoudl be getting hotter and wetter again.
    Climate deniers are going to love this.
    Feel free to correct me, or wait a few thousand years and check to be sure.

  7. Re:Sorry, try somewhere NOT a free market fundie e by sosume · · Score: 2

    "I don't like your source, so I'm going to claim your site is bigoted and a load of bollocks, instead of factually responding."

  8. Climate change is still the bigger influencer by mendred · · Score: 5, Informative

    For those who didn't RTFA - No this doesn't disprove global warming as a result of emissions. quote from the end of the article

    "The climate impact from the planets pales when compared to how humans are affecting the planet from burning fossil fuels, for example. "It's pretty far down on the list of so many other things that can affect climate on times scales that matter to us," Kent said.

    "All the carbon dioxide we're pouring into the air right now is the obvious big enchilada. That's having an effect we can measure right now. The planetary cycle is a little more subtle.""

    1. Re:Climate change is still the bigger influencer by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      Also, if the planetary cycles are measured in hundreds of thousands of years, they wouldn't be changing the climate from one decade to the other.

  9. Re:Wait, where are we heading now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Because it's one of the frequent stances among those who don't like the idea of human involvement and responsibility. Like most groups who think alike in some respects they're not as united as you'd make them out to be so you may use it as your 'not true Scotsman'. There can be quite diverse opinions if you're interested in the details. I'll give three examples of the spectrum, while this is certainly not an exhaustive list. Deniers can range from:

    Complete denial where people claim that climate simply isn't changing. And there's no sustainable evidence for change. That kind of type will argue that our measuring methods are flawed, that the data is fudged, the conclusions are wrong and so forth.

    Claims of it being totally natural for whatever reason. So nobody bears any responsibility since we both can neither do anything about it nor should we do anything about it, because we may make it worse.

    And on the other end of the spectrum there are even those who think and say that the change may be or is man made but, argue that it's actually a good thing. And therefore nothing should be attempted to stop or reverse it.

    Again the list is not exhaustive.

  10. Re:Well well by Anne+Thwacks · · Score: 2

    You are omitting the possibilities that he wilfully failed physics or does not understand anything at all. There may even be other explanations, such as "the aliens made me do it"

    --
    Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
  11. Re:Wait, where are we heading now? by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

    Because only deniers are desperately looking for any excuse to continue being deniers.
    Scientists love extra data to put into their models so they can be more accurate in the future. But they don't feel the need to make shit up like deniers do.
    But scientists now have to waste extra time explaining to deniers like yourself, it wastes their time for doing actual science, they don't like that.
    Therefore deniers like it more.

  12. Re:Sorry, try somewhere NOT a free market fundie e by crypticedge · · Score: 1

    Daily caller is a pretty well known joke among educated people.

    Using it in a science discussion is like using mad magazine as a political text book. Yeah, they briefly touch on some parts, but they're still so over simplified or twisted that the kernel of truth they may have has become entirely unrecognizable unless you were the actual individual who wrote the article/comic strip.

  13. Re:Flat Sun Society by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    You mean that thing which has such a consistent output that we refer to the "solar constant"? The thing that varies less than .1% over 11 years? Is that "big yellow thing" you're talking about? What exactly do you think you know about this topic?

    You cherry-picking piece of shit.

    Solar Variability and Terrestrial Climate

    ...

    One of the participants, Greg Kopp of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, pointed out that while the variations in luminosity over the 11-year solar cycle amount to only a tenth of a percent of the sun's total output, such a small fraction is still important. "Even typical short term variations of 0.1% in incident irradiance exceed all other energy sources (such as natural radioactivity in Earth's core) combined," he says.

    Of particular importance is the sun's extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation, which peaks during the years around solar maximum. Within the relatively narrow band of EUV wavelengths, the sun’s output varies not by a minuscule 0.1%, but by whopping factors of 10 or more. This can strongly affect the chemistry and thermal structure of the upper atmosphere.

    ...

    The solar cycle signals are so strong in the Pacific, that Meehl and colleagues have begun to wonder if something in the Pacific climate system is acting to amplify them. "One of the mysteries regarding Earth's climate system ... is how the relatively small fluctuations of the 11-year solar cycle can produce the magnitude of the observed climate signals in the tropical Pacific."

    ...

  14. Re:Well well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ... some people will cling to anything in order to explain away things they don't want to take responsibility for ...

    Hang on, stop right there. Here is the biggest reason I can't stand eco-nazis. I am NOT responsible. You are using the wrong words, either on purpose or through ignorance, to emotionally charge your argument.

    The responsibility lies with the past dozen or so generations that built up and caused this problem. I inherit this problem, I own this problem, I must be one of the many that suffer to fix the problem. But stop with the bullshit that we, alive now, CAUSED this and bear responsibility for it. All we get to do is choose to make it better or make it worse.

    Instead, you call people that don't like your attitude retards. You are not actually convincing anyone to agree with you this way. Do you think having a prius or other electric car helps? Wrong. Get a bicycle. Have you ever traveled by air? Not helping. Eat foods from all over the world that aren't locally in season? Your fault too. Now please shut up with the alarmist eco-nazi bullshit unless you are actually setting a good example. Oh, you use computers and the internet? Wasteful...

  15. Re:Wait, where are we heading now? by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 1

    It says a 405k cycle that last peaked 200k years ago, so we're heading for the minimum (since it referenced extremes, that seems to mean less-full lakes and less extreme weather.)

  16. When the Moon is in the seventh house... by jfdavis668 · · Score: 1

    And Jupiter aligns with Mars Then peace will guide the planets And love will steer the stars

  17. So we are at the most temperate point of the cycle by Zorpheus · · Score: 2

    If we are right in the middle between two points of maximum seasonal differences it must be the point of minimum differences.

  18. Re:Well well by jeff4747 · · Score: 1

    Moronic? Your reply was. To disregard the influence of the other planets, surrounding the sun, is moronic

    Moronic is attempting to use this research to explain a maxima. Since we're 200,000 years from this effect's maxima.

  19. Re:Well well by jeff4747 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I inherit this problem, I own this problem, I must be one of the many that suffer to fix the problem

    "Responsible" does not only mean "caused".

    As in, adoptive parents become responsible for the children they adopt, despite not causing those children to exist.

    You (and I) are responsible for climate change in that we have to fix it or suffer the consequences. Doesn't mean we created it. It means we are taking responsibility from the careless generations before us.

  20. Re:This is obviously impossible by jeff4747 · · Score: 1

    The last maxima from this effect was about 200,000 years ago, and the next one will be 200,000 years from now. It can not be causing the climate change we currently see, because that is happening too rapidly for this to be the cause.

  21. Re: Well well by tsa · · Score: 1

    Well said, person!

    --

    -- Cheers!

  22. CO2 Effects Are Logarithmic by huckamania · · Score: 1

    Look it up and then ask yourself what you are going to foam at the mouth about next.

    1. Re:CO2 Effects Are Logarithmic by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      This is well known, yes. Just because the effects are logarithmic doesn't make them insignificant.

  23. But Uranus? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    So, Uranus may also have a climate change effect?

  24. What about ... by PPH · · Score: 1

    ... AGW (Anthropic Global Wobbling)?

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  25. Middle of the cycle??? by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

    Right now, we are in the middle of the cycle, as the most recent peak [of the 405,000 year cycle] was around 200,000 years ago.

    Aren't the middle and the peak the same fucking thing?

    Looking at a bell curve, it would appear we are at one of the ends.

    --
    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  26. Great, Climate Deniers will read this wrong by foxalopex · · Score: 2

    If you carefully read the description it says that these are roughly 400,000 year cycles and we're currently in the middle of a cycle at about 200,000 years, not at a peak. Rapid rise in temperatures has been seen in the last 200 years or so which means this cycle can't explain why we're in the middle of a climate disaster now. It might explain why the climate was a bit weird 200,000 years ago before human civilization even existed. Now consider this, if Jupiter and Venus can affect the climate despite being so far away we can't even feel when it's up in the sky, then why wouldn't burning billions of tonnes of fossil fuels also have an impact on the climate? After all humans can move mountains, why wouldn't everything that we do have an impact on climate.

    1. Re:Great, Climate Deniers will read this wrong by Q-Hack! · · Score: 1

      The Milankovitch cycles have long known to be the cause of glacial-interglacial cycles. If we ignore the time before the Pleistocene, where the atmosphere was substantially different than today, and only focus on the last 500,000 years. The glacial-interglacial cycles have an approximate swing of 15 degrees. People are worried today about a 2 degree rise. When the temps continue to rise to those of the Eemian interglacial period, the seas will rise 25 feet, the planet will be about 4-5 degrees warmer than today and we will have to deal with a few more hurricanes/cyclones. All in all, humans have generally adapted well to these kinds of changes. Is CO2 responsible for the sharp rise we see? Probably, but at our current rate of fossil fuel consumption this problem will go away in 100 years or less as fossil fuel becomes less economical to produce.

      It's the FUD demonizing CO2 in an effort to ruin our economy via taxation that I take umbrage with.

      --
      Some days I get the sinking feeling Orwell was an optimist.
    2. Re:Great, Climate Deniers will read this wrong by orgelspieler · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Please explain. Who is attempting to ruin whose economy? Who is taxing what that would attain such a goal? More to the point, who *specifically* stands to profit? Please note that "the government" is not an acceptable answer, especially to the last one. Are specific actors in the US government seeking to ruin the US economy? Are there members of the UN seeking to ruin the global economy? To what end?

      Now lets look at the mirror image of your conspiracy theory. We know there are parties who stand to gain financially from continuing to produce fossil fuels for as long as possible. We know that they would see cheap solar or nuclear power (or worse, a general decrease in energy usage) as a business-threatening proposition. We know in the past, these same corporations have done horrible things to the environment in the name of profit (leaded gas, anyone?). So why wouldn't it make more sense that these parties, with a well-known profit motive, are actually the ones spreading FUD?

      Also, a 25 foot rise in sea level would be a big deal to those living on the coast. I don't think telling them just to "adapt" will soothe their worries, especially for those who live on an island. Some current projections put us beating the Eemian temperatures within my lifespan, and being 2 degreesC above that during my children's life. In the next century we could be seeing average temperatures not seen on this planet in the last 5 million years. Just because 3 or 4 degrees C sounds like a small number doesn't mean that the effects won't be catastrophic.

    3. Re:Great, Climate Deniers will read this wrong by Mike+Van+Pelt · · Score: 1

      I will listen to a person concerned about CO2/warming if they are not anti-nuclear.

      Give me two megawatts of on-line nuclear capacity for every megawatt of coal taken offline, and I'm on your side.

      If they are anti-nuclear, CO2/warming is not their agenda. Their agenda is something else. They're arithmetic deniers.

      (Advocating phasing out coal in favor of nuclear for something like 40 years now, but nobody listens to me.)

    4. Re:Great, Climate Deniers will read this wrong by orgelspieler · · Score: 1

      Yeah. It's a pity there are so many stupid people on both sides of this argument. On one side: "no nukes, no coal, no windmills!" On the other side: "The gubberment wants to kill small business by adding scrubbers to gas-fired turbines!" There's so much misinformation, bad logic, and downright nonsense. Those of us who have been in the power generation industry just shake our heads in dismay.

  27. Re:Flat Sun Society by religionofpeas · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Even typical short term variations of 0.1% in incident irradiance exceed all other energy sources (such as natural radioactivity in Earth's core) combined)

    Which is irrelevant. Just because there are even smaller sources of heat, doesn't make the 0.1% swings any more important.

    Within the relatively narrow band of EUV wavelengths, the sun’s output varies not by a minuscule 0.1%, but by whopping factors of 10 or more

    Whatever this effect is, it can't be big on a global scale, because we don't see any significant 11-year period in the Earth's global temperature. And, actually, since the 1980's, the output of the Sun has been decreasing a tiny bit, while surface temperatures have gone up to create new record highs. The correlation just isn't there.

  28. Re:Sorry, try somewhere NOT a free market fundie e by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

    "Source hates science, so I'm going to claim my site is the bestest in the world and everything's Tippy Toppy, instead of factually responding."

    FTFY

    --
    Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  29. Re:Sorry, try somewhere NOT a free market fundie e by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

    Whatever

    https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/17/07/01/0442203/study-claims-discarded-solar-panels-create-more-toxic-waste-than-nuclear-plants

    They only figuratively stacked the solar panels and spent fuel rods in a tower, and compared hight. They didn't compare toxicity, let alone radioactivity. That would be a bullshit report if they actually provided numbers instead of comparing the Tower of Pisa to the Mt. Everest.

    --
    Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  30. Re:Flat Sun Society by Green+Mountain+Bot · · Score: 3, Informative

    An 11 year cycle is not the cause of a century long warming sudden warming trend. And while the amount of energy added to a system is important, equally important is the amount of energy removed from the system. That 11 year cycle is a constant that hasn't changed in any meaningful way as long as we've been measuring it. What has changed is the amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases that trap heat that otherwise would be removed from the system.

  31. Sounds like we're in fastest-change part of cycle by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 1

    Assuming that this hypothetical cycle looks anything like a sine cycle ...

    Also: Assuming it looks like a sine the middle is where the rate of change is the greatest.

    This is one of the Milankovich cycles, which have been known and studied (by people other than Milankovitch) since at least 1941 and part of any reasonable long-term computer-supported climatic model since such were practical.

    What's new here is they found physical evidence to validate the connection between this cycle and climate, and push the connection back from 50 million to 215 million years.

    Climate scientists' "valid theoretical orbital solutions [are] limited to only the past 50 million years." What's new here is physical evidence that "provide[s] empirical confirmation that the unimodal 405-kiloyear orbital eccentricity cycle reliably paces Earthâ(TM)s climate back to at least 215 million years ago, well back in the Late Triassic Period." So orbital forcing is real and we have a solid handle on one of the components of it.

    = = = =

    I wonder how this ties in with another work not long ago.

    Notice, in the Orbital Forcing wikipedia article, the shape of the Vostok Petit data graphs of temperature during the interglacials: A sharp spike (typically to a bit warmer than we are now), followed immediately by a ramp back into the next ice age. Notice, also, how the latest one deviates: Its trendline levels out, with the temperature hanging in there rather than taking the usual dive.

    A couple years back there was an article in Scientific American (NOT a hotbed of "climate-change deniers", but more of a marching band in the anthropogenic climate change parade). The authors had compared their computations of the expected effect of the Milankovitch cycles to the climate record available at the time and got a nice match, ending with exactly that deviation.

    Then they tried attributing the deviation to greenhouse warming from human fossil carbon burning and cranked out a good match to the deviation: The rise of humans corresponded to a remarkable levelling of the temperature curve, which "should have been" bending down in an accelerating dive into the next ice age. (This sounds to me like a feedback process you'd expect: Colder winters, more fuel burning, making the next winters milder. With the rise of human population roughly tracking the accelerating curve into the ice age, the net result might be level enough for this feedback to become an effective regulator as people went from a few plains apes to populous farming and metalworking civilizations.)

    The "level" period extended roughly to the industrial revolution (mod some "short-term" tweaks like the mideival warm period), after which the temperature went up a bit. (What you'd expect from the extra coal and oil burning.) So then they projected forward, with a range of assumptions on the rate of burning of fossil carbon and the amount of fossil carbon reserves.

    What they got was not the "hockey stick" diverging into a Venus-like planet. Instead they got a rise (that looks like that at the start), followed by a crash back onto the if-humans-hadn't-happened ice-age-descent curve when the economically-useful-for-fuel fossil carbon runs out. That comes in approximately 400 years, though the time, and the height of the temperature peak, vary substantially with how fast the carbon gets burned (and how much it turns out there is).

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
  32. Is the new study actually about that? by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

    Because the title is "Empirical evidence for stability of the 405-kiloyear Jupiter–Venus eccentricity cycle over hundreds of millions of years" as if we already know perfectly well about the cycle, and they just show that it's stable.

    --
    Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
  33. Treat all causes of climate change the same! by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 1

    Repeat after me, slowly: From a human point of view, any natural cycle that affects climates where we live must be handled in the same way as any manmade cause. This is why the proper response to climate change is engineering, not hysteria.

    1. Re:Treat all causes of climate change the same! by religionofpeas · · Score: 1

      From a human point of view, any natural cycle that affects climates where we live must be handled in the same way as any manmade cause

      A 400,000 year cycle can be handled in a slower way than a 400 year one, though.

  34. Re:Saturn is very large also.no mention of its eff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I think you should check the masses and distances between the planets in our solar system again.
    Jupiter is about 3.4 times more massive than Saturn. Relative to the sun at the centre of our solar system Jupiter is also about 1.8 times closer to the sun. This leads to an orbital period of Jupiter that is about 2.5 times shorter than that of Saturn.
    Now guess which one has a larger effect on Earth no matter how small the absolute effect is.

  35. Re:Well well by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

    Pluto is a dwarf planet, although I guess in our hyper-sensitized culture we should call it a little planet.

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  36. Re:Wait, where are we heading now? by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1

    No, if the cycle is 400K years, we're half-way though the cycle. We're at the "dry" end of things, we're heading towards the next wetter peak. In geometric terms, we're at 180 degrees of a cosine wave - in the trough between peaks.

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  37. Re:Wait, where are we heading now? by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 1

    We're halfway from the last peak and they defined the peak as the wetter time.

  38. Re:Wait, where are we heading now? by LynnwoodRooster · · Score: 1
    Yes. You stated:

    we're heading for the minimum (since it referenced extremes, that seems to mean less-full lakes and less extreme weather.)

    Which is the opposite of what you say now... We are headed to wetter, more extreme weather at the maximum - not the minimum.

    --
    Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
  39. Re:Wait, where are we heading now? by CaffeinatedBacon · · Score: 1

    Actually we are still headed to the trough for the next 2.5k years. So the warming and trending up will arrive in about the 45 00's. Hmm maybe there are shorter term climate problems we should deal with first...

  40. Re:So we are at the most temperate point of the cy by spitzak · · Score: 1

    It says are half way between the maximum and minimum.

  41. Re:So we are at the most temperate point of the cy by Zorpheus · · Score: 1

    Where?
    It says we are in the middle of the cycle. The is 400000 years. The last peak was 200000 years ago. A cycle is the period in which it repeats, so the next maximum is 400000 years after the last. So we are hlf way between two maxima. So we are at a minimum, assuming that the cycle is roughly symetric.

  42. Re:Wait, where are we heading now? by NicknameUnavailable · · Score: 1

    Halfway from == we just had. We're heading toward the minimum.

  43. Cue the planet deniers ... by fygment · · Score: 1

    ... we already have all the answers we need, ok? We know everything we need to know already about everything. Climate is changing, humans are the cause, and we have to make everything back the way it was. End of story thank you. We must make maximum efforts to roll back the clock because we have allowed our planet to change and that is not acceptable. Our species rose to prominence based on our ability to prevent change. Change is bad.

    Sarcasm in case you didn't see that.

    --
    "Consensus" in science is _always_ a political construct.
  44. Re:Flat Sun Society by Tenebrousedge · · Score: 1

    Infantile humor, alternative facts, and flamebait: the new Republican Slashdot.

    --
    Those who advocate genocide deserve every protection afforded by law, and none afforded by common human decency.
  45. Re:Nothing to balance...free to wobble by jeff4747 · · Score: 1

    Except the variations we see now are larger than have ever occurred. Which means it can't be a periodic "wobble" that happens every so often.

  46. Re:Well well by jeff4747 · · Score: 1

    Yet you can't quite manage to articulate that succinct option.....

  47. Re:Well well by jeff4747 · · Score: 1

    Unless you have a time machine, it's going to be unfair. Complaining about it being unfair doesn't do anything besides take up effort better used at fixing it.

  48. Climate change is real. by Alamandorious · · Score: 1

    Climate change is real, but how much influence humans have on it is up for debate.

    That doesn't mean that it doesn't make sense to develop better, cleaner energy, or clean the oceans of plastic, or preserve endangered species, or reduce our waste products...

    And as a certain study has proven, just because you don't believe that mankind has a huge influence on climate doesn't mean you don't want to do things to be a better steward of the planet.

  49. Re:So we are at the most temperate point of the cy by spitzak · · Score: 1

    You are right, that is what it says, implying we are at (or near) the minimum. Seems strange to say we are in the "middle of the cycle" because who is to say the ends of the cycle are at the maximums (rather than the minimums) which is why I quickly read it to mean we are half way between them. The USA Today article uses the same wording so it is not the summary fault. I didn't pay the $10 to read the academic paper, besides it might not say. I wonder if perhaps they mangled the response from somebody to this question, I find it hard to believe that a scientic source would say "middle of the cycle" rather than "near the minimum".

  50. Very interesting. by dddux · · Score: 1

    It seems like we don't need to worry about that for another 200.000 years so our grand children will be just fine. And their grand children, and their grand children, and their grand chidren... how about researching something useful today? How about something that really matters to us and our grand kids?

    --
    "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." - Jiddu Krishnamurti
  51. Re:So we are at the most temperate point of the cy by Zorpheus · · Score: 1

    Yes, I think they deliberately did not make it clear that we are at the most harmless point, because this is bad for research funding. That's why I felt I need to state that.
    This might be related to the development of civilisation though. Stable conditions allowed the number of humans to increase further and further, leading to where we are today.

  52. oh dear my sense of humour has been normalized by KingBenny · · Score: 1

    "Orbits of Jupiter and Venus Affect Earth's Climate, Says Study" so does Uranus, if seven billion times

    --
    Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?