What happened to all of the previous glaciers?

[Surely]

If global warming is caused by burning fossil fuels. What made all of the previous glaciers melt and recede? Prior to humans using fossil fuels.

Updates

+1 y

Appreciate all of the great responses. Wish I could give you all a MHO.
The only one that I don’t didn’t see was “Polar Shift!”
The earth is tilting, so the seasons are changing!
True or not. I don’t know.

[MuddyMole]

The global temperature has fluctuated significantly in the past. About 120,000 years ago, there was an interglacial period, where temperatures were warmer than today, and sea levels were higher (there were even hippos living as far North as the UK!). I see evidence of it when I go out sea kayaking, as there are caves in the cliffs which date from that period, and which are now several metres above the present day high tide mark.

There are many, many reasons for these fluctuations. Things like the Earth's orbit, plate tectonics and varying ocean currents, volcanic activity releasing greenhouse gases, and living organisms (massive algal blooms that absorb CO2 etc) - and then there are various feedback systems that either amplify or counteract these changes.

The difference is that the changes seen in just the past 200 years or so (since the industrial revolution) are of a magnitude that would have previously only occurred over a span of several thousands of years.

[NaultD]

Modern global warming concerns are a thing because we are changing faster then we can deal with. Glacier melting was a good measure of how fast thinga are getting hotter over a longer periods of time back in the 90s. Today we can use England who has never experienced 40° Celsius untill this summer compared to all 300 years of recorded history at any given temperature ever written down.

So it is getting worse by empirical evidence with zero speculation within written history.

[NamerOfStars]

They melted when the temperature rose. Shifts in climate happen naturally all the time; the big danger in *anthropogenic* global warming isn't "the planet getting hotter" but "the planet getting hotter VERY FAST with no way to stop it".

One of the theories around the P-T extinction (the biggest one in Earth's history, that wiped out 97% of all life on the planet) is that a spell of global cooling happened, wiping out many life forms- and then, less than a million years later, massive warming hit, and killed most of what was left. The clathrate gun hypothesis is SCARY.

[andreasderjuengere]

Nice try.

Those ice ages melted a lot slower - and so the planet's life had more time to adapt to it :)

Climatic changes are basically ''natural''. But when human greed, indifference and incompetence kicks in, then we may run short with time.

Enjoy your car, your aircon, your travelling, your industrial waste, your one-way plastics and all the other shit that only becomes relevant when you and I are gone.

Pity the others. But - hey! - those left behind still can organize an @Movement. Grrrrrr :D

[Surely]

@andreasderjuengere When you and I were young. Just about everything could be recycled. Then came the disposable era.
Now someone came up with a great idea! Let’s recycle and save the planet!
I have heard that New York City dumps their trash in the ocean?

[andreasderjuengere]

If we would leave the world alone, it would recycle itself. That's what went on since nature began.

[JayParris]

Climate change is a natural phenomenon. They say minor greenhouse gases speed it up, but I'm not convinced. If you look at the GOES satellite data, there are cycles where we get more solar radiation, but greenhouse gases aren't one-way mirrors. They also measure light that's reflected back from the atmosphere, and an increase in CO2 reflects more light back out into space than it traps.

[Gangactivities911]

Minor greenhouse gases were dropping like millions of tons of co2 into the atmosphere that’s not exactly minor

[JayParris]

@Gangactivities911 still, its at 412 parts per million. And like I said, it reflects more light back out into space than it traps. Take a look at the solar cycle chart and look what happens after the Dalton minimum. It gradually, consistently increases. There's your global warming source.

And guess what happens when seawater warms up? It releases CO2 into the atmosphere because it can't hold a much in suspension. So ocean warming causes a CO2 increase, not the other way around. And increasing the global average air temp has VERY little effect on ocean water because of thermal mass. But the sun is another story.

[Gangactivities911]

So specifically releasing millions of tons of co2 into the atmosphere will not increase co2 levels in the atmosphere?

[JayParris]

@Gangactivities911 it does have its effect, but its fairly small. The atmosphere currently contains over 3,000,000 megatons of carbon dioxide. And CO2 is constantly being sequestered by plants, which is estimated at 258,000 megatons each year. That's not even mentioning soil sequestration and algae.

[Gangactivities911]

Natural changes to the climate. But the reason the current climate change is so concerning is because it’s happening so quickly and not over the course of thousands to millions of years and we have pretty good evidence to show that co2 is the aim reason.

[Goforit1010]

Dinosaur farts. That's the ONLY explanation. Or possibly the smoking the dinosaurs 🦕 did back then.

Heck, we're all gonna die anyway. Worrying about this wastes too much personal energy. It's just not important.

[maximumpower]

Its a natural, cyclical change.
Unfortunately, it pops up every 30 years or so so that "activists" can convince another generation that its an issue.
Do your research, read and then think about it, folks.

[exitseven]

Yes and during the indistrial revolution when the air was so polluted that a lot of trees died the world did not die in flames.

[Gangactivities911]

We are polluting dramatically more today than during the industrial revolution and it’s compounds ya know?

[exitseven]

@Gangactivities911 There were all coal fired plants in those days with no scrubbing technology. Trees would die from having residue all over their leaves. It was a real thing and yet the world did not end in 12 years. We use more clean burning natural gas (at least in America) and have ways to lessen emissions. The air is better (in America) than it has ever been. I grew up when photochemical smog was a real problem. We never see that anymore.

[Waldoe]

the Planet Earth has been warming since the beginning of time... sometime in the future... it might become a burnt cinder... orbiting the Sun, nothing "man" can do...

[Gangactivities911]

So much for the ice age

[Astarlessnightsky]

Climate change. After the ice age climate changed and it got warmer.

[Jamie05rhs]

The glaciers were from the Ice Age. We've warmed up since then.

[Midgetmcwidget]

They were turned into mints. Foxs to be exact

[Jamie05rhs]

Huh?

[Jamie05rhs]

Oh, nvm. That was a joke.

[BeMuse]

Go look up the wolf number...

[BeMuse]

[BeMuse]

You see how the largest peak in recorded history occurred in the 1950s... Well NASA predicted a solar maximum that would exceed that in 2011. Al Gore tried to capitalize on that prediction and utilize it for global warming propaganda in 2006. That didn't pan out so they ended up looking stupid. None the less, tons of CO2 pumped into the atmosphere did contribute to acidification of the oceans which negatively impacted coral reefs and sea life being that the ocean acts as a giant chemical buffer. Pollution does have negative impacts on the environment, which makes the Earth less habitable for humans, but there's always someone trying to exploit what is really happening and utilize it for some political gain. They always obscure the truth with lies even if there is a grain of truth to it... Just look at what they tried to do with covid, masks that don't work, experimental vaccines that hurt people, lock downs that financially ruined people, etc. Sure people were getting sick. It did some damage, but it was never something that was going to wipe out humanity or anything like that. They never let the truth get in the way of their plans though...

[bean2k21]

Glaciers sometimes melt overnight;