Thanks Chuck for the timely and informative science lesson, you may be the first denier to use accepted science to deny Man Made Climate Change (MMCC). The Milankovich cycle is not commonly discussed in everyday conversation, but certainly every climate scientist is well aware of it and may make frequent reference to it.
You are right, it has affected climate change in the past and will absolutely impact future climate. However, instead of being an explanation for today’s extreme change it actually helps prove it.
First, the Milankovich cycle has been operating for all of earth’s history, and that of all bodies in the universe most likely, but it operates very slowly and methodically, it takes thousands of years to show an effect, perhaps less predictably than you suggest though. It explains the cycles of the ice ages for instance, but not the Little Ice Age (1600 to 1850), which is anomalous to the cycle. In fact the Little Ice Age is now believed to be best explained as having been provoked by human activity itself, the very first evidence of MMCC.
When scientists look at the rate of change in today’s climate they find it at odds with what Milankovich might have predicted: Milankovich is very slow, today’s rate is incredibly fast, so something else is causing it. When industrial activities are analyzed and applied there is a close and predictable fit with these activities and the response of the climate, thus the theory of MMCC. Thanks for the opportunity to explain, hope it helps.
Jerry Hiniker
Hovland
Leave a Reply