Robert B. writes via email with a question that we’ve just never asked readers to weigh in on here before in post, though has been bandied about in comments. I figure it is about time to put it to rest by asking up front.
He asks:
What is the perfect temperature of Earth? I’m assuming that climate change-related taxes will be used to bring our planet back to the perfect temperature, and I need to know when that has been reached.
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The perfect temperature is what ever God makes it. He is in charge anyway, not green nutters.
Have you lost your mind?
Have you gone stark staring mad?
Are you trying to start a war?
The auto industry invented dual zone climate control so that we don’t have to answer this question! And you want an answer for the whole planet? Nothing good can come of this…
Gotta keep the mosquitos and bugs at bay. So winters have to be cold to save the trees from beetles in the mid and high latitudes.
Gotta have diurnal T variation to allow heat cycling from daytime solar heating
Gotta have enough growing season to make grains and fruits. But apples have to so many days of freezing to make fruit.
Gotta keep the riff raff out of northern climates. Tropics breeds indolence in people. (Where my margarita again? It’s always 5-oclock somewhere in Margaritaville, etc).
Since temperature distribution is a bell curve, we want tails that extend to 5 sigma,
My ideal global average temp in 16 deg C.(60.8 F) should do it.
16 deg C (global average). That’s 1 deg C higher than current. Should be there around 2080. But I’ll be dead then. Oh well.
The standard to be applied is the state of global climate in the District of Columbia on March 31, 1948 (when Al Gore was born).
Thank you, A Theo K, for your generously kind characterization of my “temperature mosaic,” lol.
#(:))
Here’s a better “mosaic” to illustrate my point:
Parts I and II
Ski to Sea — 2011, Mt. Baker –> Bellingham
And, Part III, …. someday…. (sigh)
P.S. Hope those orchids make it — congratulations to you for having the skill to raise those lovely plants.
42
Bill Parsons says:
March 7, 2014 at 7:45 pm
It varies in direct proportion to James Hansen’s honoraria for speaking engagements.
Duh, I might add.
Per: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_actaul_temperature_of_planet_earth#slide=2&article=What_is_the_actaul_temperature_of_planet_earth
“The average temperature on the earth is twenty four degree Celsius and if it is changed a little more or less the results will be affected all over the world.”
This means that trillions must be spent to reduce CO2 back to about 300 ppm or less to avoid multiple dooms days (excessive rain/droughts/extreme weather/rising oceans/dying flora,fauna etc). Then finally the models (which by then will be run by android computers) will declare that the climate has finally reached stable “natural variation” levels and at last humans are no longer to blame.
P.S.: A minimum of 20% of the trillions will be required for “scientific climate study” grants to continue insuring that there is no repeat of the near doomsday conditions caused by those previously high CO2 levels.
Since the Earth is a spinning ball that receives most of its influx of radiant heat near the equator, then rejects substantial heat near the poles, it is pointless to choose one temperature for the entire Earth.
If the evolutionists are correct, humans survived through more than one ice age and the warmer interglacial periods. With lower sea levels and higher sea levels compared to today, humans managed just fine.
P.P.S. FULL SCREEN works great for the beaches. (click on the exploded square icon in lower right of control window)
Its 15C today. our civilization has developed over a period where this ranged from perhaps 13.5 to 17C.
So that range has proven to be good. trying to optimize this ( what is perfect) would be a fools errand. Never let the perfect be the enemy of the good. 13.5C to 17C has been pretty good.
Knowing that, who but a fool would want to risk going above 17C. There be dragons.
So, a 17C cap makes some sense. As a good engineer we are are going to want some buffer around this.. so 16.5 C.. dont do anything that has a chance of taking us above this line.
Dont burn all the coal, switch to gas until we understand the problem better.
So “what is the perfect temperature? well a temperature that our civilization has experienced would be a good start.. keep things around there.
No complaint by me about being out of touch with the exploding SAB.
With the earths poles still glaciated, and from a long term geological perspective-we are now living in an Ice Age. I just don’t think this is it?
Warm enough so that girls wear the absolute minimum. Or even less.
10 degrees warmer than my girlfriend’s feet.
Humm,
we should be able to derive an equation for this, because no matter what the perfect temperature is, my wife’s toes will be 20 degrees F less
I know what the perfect temperature is my children. Listen closely and be prepared to put your tithes in the wicker basket being passed around. When enough green paper and jingley thinks have accumulated within the basket I will retire to my mountaintop temple accompanied by the fairest of the fair maidens among you. I will then perform the ritual exercises necessary to unlock that knowledge within me.
And then get my a.. over to Las Vegas.
The late Everett Dirksen would probably hold that the ideal temperature is the point at which politicians, feeling the heat, begin to see the light.
There’s a temperature for work
and a temperature for play,
a temperature for planting
and a temperature for making hay.
There are temperatures for fishing,
on the ice or from a boat.
There’s a temperature for bikinis
and a temperature for down coats.
If you’d know the perfect temperature
heed what I say!
The perfect temperature is……
What’s the temperature today?
The global thermostat should be set a 75F in the summer and 69F in winter… to save energy.
It was the temperature during the Roman Warm Period.
Whatever temperature drives the lawyers, politicians, snakes and rats into hibernation sounds good to me.
Perfection is the enemy of good.
In trying to achieve perfection we ignore all the good alternative, while never achieving perfection. As a result, by seeking perfection we do more harm than good.
This is the problem with over regulation. Having achieved good, regulation seeks to achieve perfection, and in this they do more harm than good.
For example, clean air and water is good. But sterile environments, completely devoid of harmful effects is actually quite bad for humans. Study after study shows that we have been genetically selected over many generations to co-exist with a dirty environment. Children that play in dirt and eat dirt end up healthier, with less allergies, than children raised in hypo allergenic environments.
We see something similar in vaccination. By exposing healthy children to low levels of pathogens, they become resistant to larger levels later in life. While children that receive antibiotics early in life develop sensitivities to their environment later in life.
90% of the cells in our bodies are not our DNA. They are the bacteria that keep us alive. It seems perfectly reasonable that we develop the 90% that are not “us” from our environment. When these “friendly” bacteria are not available, we suffer poor health.
The Holocene Optimum was the ideal temperature. That is why the Holocenians called it Optimum.
Ask the Oak trees, my children, and heed their wisdom. They know in their Oaken hearts that when the temperature remains too steady, the squirrels multiply without limit, consuming the acorns with insatiable appetite until there are no new Oak trees, and so both species perish from the smiling face of the Earth. But when the temperatures swing in a violent and unfriendly manner, then verily the squirrel populations are diminished, and thus both species flourish like — well — Oak trees.