The World Ending
Mckenna Rowley
Honors English Mrs. Murphy 3rd hour
November 16, 2012
The World Ending As We Know It As ridiculous as predictions of the world ending are, there are some pretty accurate predictions. According to climatologist, the Earth is actually in an Ice Age cycle that changes between warm and cold periods. Right now we are in an interglacial period, the warm time in between the much longer and colder ones. If the record of ice ages is accurate and consistent, then it’s due to get much colder in the next few thousand years – maybe starting tomorrow. There is no doubt that with the aid of modern technology, humans could survive. However, a theory that was recently put forward, claims that we are heating the planet too fast and that this warming trend will trigger rapid cooling. The polar oceans causes the current known as the North Atlantic Current (conveyor belt) to fail. The ice age that follows would be far colder than normal and would destroy civilization in the northern hemisphere. Now you might think that this is bad but it gets far worse. People who predicted the Snowball Earth theory suggest that all the extra ice would reflect so much sunlight that each year it would get more and more colder (more snow and ice reflecting sunlight) until the planet transformed into a giant snowball entirely frozen except for a few “slushy” areas around the equator. If you think that this is crazy, it is worth noticing that an increasing number of scientists believe that it has happened at least several times before. It does get warmer again when volcanism arises and increasingly dirty snow allow the planet to warm up. Still, by then we'd be long gone. As predictions go this is just not cool!
Honors English Mrs. Murphy 3rd hour
November 16, 2012
The World Ending As We Know It As ridiculous as predictions of the world ending are, there are some pretty accurate predictions. According to climatologist, the Earth is actually in an Ice Age cycle that changes between warm and cold periods. Right now we are in an interglacial period, the warm time in between the much longer and colder ones. If the record of ice ages is accurate and consistent, then it’s due to get much colder in the next few thousand years – maybe starting tomorrow. There is no doubt that with the aid of modern technology, humans could survive. However, a theory that was recently put forward, claims that we are heating the planet too fast and that this warming trend will trigger rapid cooling. The polar oceans causes the current known as the North Atlantic Current (conveyor belt) to fail. The ice age that follows would be far colder than normal and would destroy civilization in the northern hemisphere. Now you might think that this is bad but it gets far worse. People who predicted the Snowball Earth theory suggest that all the extra ice would reflect so much sunlight that each year it would get more and more colder (more snow and ice reflecting sunlight) until the planet transformed into a giant snowball entirely frozen except for a few “slushy” areas around the equator. If you think that this is crazy, it is worth noticing that an increasing number of scientists believe that it has happened at least several times before. It does get warmer again when volcanism arises and increasingly dirty snow allow the planet to warm up. Still, by then we'd be long gone. As predictions go this is just not cool!