Climatic Changes

(Alternative theory)

Ever read about the dramatic changes in climate these past few years? The New Straits Times, Sat Feb 2nd 2007 reads “Britain battered by blizzards” and John Matthews, from a Fleetwood Royal Navy vessel describes the Irish Sea as ‘horrendous’. The same goes for China which experiences the worst winter weather in 50 years. Situation was so bad that 105 million people were affected. Out of these 64 were killed, many were stranded due to transport problems, many were sick or injured especially during the Chinese New Year rush to get home, food was running out, electricity and fuel affecting many more.

In other parts of the world, Australia is hit by unusually heavy floods and so is Jakarta, Indonesia. Saudi Arabia saw sudden high rainfalls flooding and even snowfalls in some places. Something which never happened in history before.

There has also been a rise in seismic activities all around the world these past few years. All occurring along the ring of fire that snakes through most of South Asia towards Japan and the rest of the world.

Not only has the weather gone haywire but sea creatures are being found not in their usual habitat. Barracudas’ were fished of Britain’s coast and the garfish, usually found in colder waters was fished recently in Malaysia’s rivers.

What is happening to our Earth I wonder?

THEORIES BEHIND CLIMATIC CHANGES

Some of the theories behind climatic changes are

1. Variations in the Earth's orbital characteristics.
2. Atmospheric carbon dioxide variations.
3. Volcanic eruptions
4. Variations in solar output.
5. Large-Scale Ocean Current Conveyor Belt
6. Earth Albedo

I will not go into scientific detail on each and every one of these. For those who are interested, please refer to the websites listed in the references below and others that you may find on the internet.

References:
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Causes_of_climate_change
http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/mandias/lia/possible_causes.html
http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/7y.html

The recent climatic change has been commonly blamed on increased carbon-dioxide gas emissions causing the polar ice to melt at an abnormally higher rate than before (Readers Digest Jan 2008: The Facts about global warming) but I have an alternative theory, a bit far fetched but a theory never the less.

I prefer a combination of theory no. 1 (Variations in the Earth's orbital characteristics) above and no. 2 (Large-Scale Ocean Current Conveyor Belt). I suspect that the Tsunami that hit the coast of Banda Aceh, Indonesia on the 26th December, 2004 is the main culprit. The underwater earthquake that triggered this major event shook our world like no one alive has seen before. According to the Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia;-

With a magnitude of between 9.1 and 9.3, it is the second largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph. This earthquake had the longest duration of faulting ever observed, between 8.3 and 10 minutes. It caused the entire planet to vibrate as much as 1 cm (0.5 inches)[1] and triggered other earthquakes as far away as Alaska.

With a magnitude this big, there is a huge possibility that the Earth’s Axis might have been affected. Even a minor change can and will affect the Earths climate as noticed during the past few years. I am not in the position to prove this scientifically at the moment but friends and relatives have notice a slight change in the position of the rising sun in the place where they have lived for the past 20 – 30 years. It is minimal but noticeable. The theory behind the tilt affecting the climate is that the Earth’s tilt changes every 41,000 years and can deviate between 22.5 to 24.5 degrees. Unfortunately, with the earthquake of Indonesia, known by the scientific community as the ‘Great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake’, there might have been an advanced change in the tilt unnoticed by many.

When the Earth’s tilt changes, well so does the world’s ocean flow. Which in return affects the climate even more (and sends fishes in the wrong direction of the world which explains why some fish species are found far away from their normal breeding grounds). Should there be a major volcanic eruption in the near future, this will affect the climate even more.

World’s Ocean Current Flow.

References:

1. http://www.eoearth.org/article/Causes_of_climate_change
2. http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/mandias/lia/possible_causes.html
3. http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/7y.html
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_tsunami
5. www.redcross.org/images/pdfs/TRP2YrReport.pdf