As if we didn’t already have enough to worry about….
Excerpts from the New Scientist
Warming oceans could cause Earth’s axis to tilt in the coming century, a new study suggests. The effect was previously thought to be negligible, but researchers now say the shift will be large enough that it should be taken into account when interpreting how the Earth wobbles.
The Earth spins on an axis that is tilted some 23.5° from the vertical. But this position is far from constant – the planet’s axis is constantly shifting in response to changes in the distribution of mass around the Earth. “The Earth is like a spinning top, and if you put more mass on one side or other, the axis of rotation is going to shift slightly,” says Felix Landerer of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
The influx of fresh water from shrinking ice sheets also causes the planet to pitch over. Landerer and colleagues estimate that the melting of Greenland’s ice is already causing Earth’s axis to tilt at an annual rate of about 2.6 centimetres – and that rate may increase significantly in the coming years.
Now, they calculate that oceans warmed by the rise in greenhouse gases can also cause the Earth to tilt – a conclusion that runs counter to older models, which suggested that ocean expansion would not create a large shift in the distribution of the Earth’s mass.
…
The team found that as the oceans warm and expand, more water will be pushed up and onto the Earth’s shallower ocean shelves. Over the next century, the subtle effect is expected to cause the northern pole of Earth’s spin axis to shift by roughly 1.5 centimetres per year in the direction of Alaska and Hawaii.
The effect is relatively small. “The pole’s not going to drift away in a crazy manner,” Landerer notes, adding that it shouldn’t induce any unfortunate feedback in Earth’s climate.
…
And climate change can also affect the Earth’s spin. Previously, Landerer and colleagues showed that global warming would cause Earth’s mass to be redistributed towards higher latitudes.
Journal reference: Geophysical Research Letters (in press)
full story here
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augdra (12:33:09) :I’m not a scientist but I do know that the grass on the north side of my house did not get enough sun to grow over bare spots ten years ago. This summer however, not a single bare spot and I now have to cover the pool pump to prevent over heating. The sun sets at a more northly lattitude so that I no longer have to cover the west windows like I did ten years ago.
augdra your post intrigued me. I am not a scientist either just a lowly engineer. I did a little calculation. I assumed you were at a northerly location 60 degrees North and that your house was double storied about 7 metres high. Then I calculated the lengths of the shadows on the North side of your house in 1999 and 2009. At the solstices, the 21st of June and December there would be no difference in the shadows. The max sun you had in 1999 would be the same as 2009, and the min in December. However at the equinoxes you would get less and more shadows between 2009 and 1999. From 21st June the shadows would decrease in comparison to 1999. Assuming those above figures, you would get 0.15 metres less shadow on 21/09/2009 than 21/09/1999 on the north side.
But this has got to do with the movement of the Earth, its slight change of axis and its relative position to the sun and nothing to do with Global warming.
Forgot to mention, my best friend caught his wife in bed with Felix Landerer’s brother, Phil, ………….. 8^]
Plot the function for the annual increase in the Earth’s rate of rotation due to the annual tons of terrestrial debre accreting to it since the dawn of time. Extrapolate out 5 billion more years. What is the length of an earth day?
We must immediately stop all rockets, jets, airplanes, helicopter, ships, cars trucks, locomotives, washing machines, factories, farm tractors, etc.
. The nuclear tests from the 50s and 60s took the Earth to the tipping point.
We are now shoving the Earth out of it’s orbit (tree) and we will end up in that Twilight Zone episode. The one where Earth swung towards the sun, and the lady woke up after passing out from the heat, asking is it nightime? No, it’s noon, said the nurse, we are moving away from the Sun now, and it’s snowing in Summertime.
noaaprogrammer (15:43:43) :
In 5 billion years the Sun will have radiacally altered it’s state. So we have what? A billion years to exit stage Solar System and find a new home. One way to do this is to send some primordial ooze on satellites to nearby stars with proto-planets. In 5 billion years, the ooze will bring forth intelligent life which will a.) escape once more or 2.) perish.
Barry Foster (14:28:13) : I suggest a huge chuffing mercury tilt switch, then if the world goes too far over everything will switch off. Oh, no, that’s no good, is it? Mercury is bad for the environment.
The warmists will love it in principle, it fits with the whole “tipping point” narrative. I think what we need to sell it is double bunding. I smell massive grants….
a lot of hot air from spin doctors tilting at windmills
So I suppose the Earth must have tilted big time when the asteroid hit which wiped the dinosaurs out and superheated the oceans and sky for that matter? Thats ridiculous and is just more fantasy speculation coming from the environmental Nazis! They can’t prove this absurdity just like they cannot prove AGW! Keep writing those books and giving the lectures, the acolytes of the new religion of the Left need to be fed!
and meanwhile, it’s the 400th anniversary today of Galileo’s telescope. He would turn in his grave at the people today who refuse to look at the basic evidence properly – but now call themselves “scientists”.
I will huff and puff and blow your house down! Thats how relevent the threat of AGW is! It is nonexistent and this nonsense about warming oceans causing a polar shift is just more fodder for a Hollyweird disaster movie and thats about it!
Look at this nice little cool patch. You’d think a Hurricane just came through.
Oh, . . . wait . .
Uh, here’s da link:
http://www.osdpd.noaa.gov/data/sst/anomaly/anomwnc.gif
Ah, the wobbleheads getting press (attention). Good for their academic standing (paycheck). Want to have some fun. Draw the earth to scale (2D). Include only the highest mountains and the deepest seas, otherwise it might take years to complete. When you get to the earth’s crust make sure you have a very finely sharpened pencil–you will need it. The earth’s crust compared to the mantle and core is minute. The crust includes the oceans and all the ice. Imagine the seas and the ice moving. Think it will shift the tilt of the entire planet? A fly moving on a locomotive will not knock it off the track. Not enough mass. Even if the locomotive is spinning in place at an outrageous speed the moving fly still will not knock the locomotive off the tracks. Ah, but it makes wonderful party conversation for the greenies, between bites from the crackers and sips from the wine.
Kum, thanks for the link. Those SST’s are showing a pronounced cooling bias in that area, I suppose NOAA will stop using them now.
TG (16:57:37) : Ah, but it makes wonderful party conversation for the greenies, between bites from the crackers and sips from the wine.
…and puffs from the “pointy” cigarettes.
Now, do you suppose 15, or 20 of those storms, worldwide, any given year would make a difference?
jeremiel (16:20:29) :
So I suppose the Earth must have tilted big time when the asteroid hit which wiped the dinosaurs out and superheated the oceans and sky for that matter?
Nope. Plugin the numbers and see what the impact effects would be from a space rock of your own design. – http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/impacteffects/ .
Here’s the estimated effect from the Chixalub impact.
Inputs:
Distance from Impact: 1000.00 km = 621.00 miles
Projectile Diameter: 17000.00 m = 55760.00 ft = 10.56 miles
Projectile Density: 8000 kg/m3
Impact Velocity: 20.00 km/s = 12.42 miles/s
Impact Angle: 45 degrees
Target Density: 2500 kg/m3
Target Type: Sedimentary Rock
Energy:
Energy before atmospheric entry: 4.12 x 10^24 Joules = 9.83 x 10^8 MegaTons TNT
The average interval between impacts of this size somewhere on Earth during the last 4 billion years is 9.2 x 10^8years
Major Global Changes:
The Earth is not strongly disturbed by the impact and loses negligible mass.
The impact does not make a noticeable change in the Earth’s rotation period or the tilt of its axis.
The impact does not shift the Earth’s orbit noticeably.
See also the novel “The HAB Theory” by Allen Eckert
A group of scientist are bravely convincing the world that the ice caps and the magic of MHD cause the crust to capsize around the mantle periodically.
Of course, just as the UN meets to create a plan to deal with this, it happens.
The UN, always just a bit late.
I love how lately, even unusually cold weather is because of global warming.
I think global warming killed Michael Jackson, too, right?
*sob*…. Science is dead:-(
I’m in South Florida, and even the sharks are sweating.
Obvioulsy there an urgent need for funding and scientific work to study all of these.
We got AGW from CO2 emissions,
we have the acidification of our oceans from AGW,
We have a tilting earth,
and Jane Lubchenco says climate models are robust enough to predict wind patterns 100 years from now and help municipalities locate wind farm.
Good thing we have such ethical experts looking into these things.
*** THIS JUST IN ***
New NASA computer has calculated that the Earth’s axis is tilting much faster than previously believed!
Film at Eleven.
David Ball (08:09:28) :”My problem is that New Scientist will print unadulterated crap like this and yet never print anything that raises serious question regarding the validity of global warming, and the inconsequential effect of Co2. Flanagan, bill, Phil., Mary Hinge, Joel Shore, what have you to say about that? Isn’t it obvious why so few papers questioning the doctrine are “peer-reviewed” or published. When this BS (bad science ) gets a pass, and Beck’s work isn’t even allowed a chance (among countless others). New Scientist is actually hurting themselves. Think of the controversy (and units sold) if they printed an article that provides balance. The old argument of consensus is made moot once again. Oh, I forgot, it’s a conspiracy, ….”
All damn very good points!
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA
Robert A Cook PE (13:31:45) :
Thanks for this. Very enlightening post.
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA