Chapter 1
Climatic Paradox

Historic Temperatures of Early Earth

Today, the Earth is the one planet out of all the planets in the solar system that has an atmosphere providing a favorable climate for the evolution of life (both flora and fauna) on its surface. To better understand the historic development of the Earth and its atmosphere, geologists have divided the age of the Earth into eons, eras and periods. Figure 1.1 displays the geologic system of time division used in this book, showing the development of life and how it relates to the changing environmental geologic development of the Earth. When discussing the climate of the Earth, a critical component is that of temperature. A temperature chart covering the entire history of Earth is presented in Figure 1.2. The arrow on the right side of this figure points to today's average surface temperature of the Earth. The Earth has experienced both cooler and warmer periods of temperature with cyclic occurrence. In general, Figure 1.2 reveals that the Earth has been much warmer in the past than it is today, and that over the past 65 million years (MY) has progressively cooled.

Figure 1.1 Development of life on Earth for the past 4.5 BY. (After pbhslifescience, https://pbhslifescience.wordpress.com/2016/11/04/evolution-slides-1.)

Figure 1.2 Schematic 4.5 BY Earth chart. (Original data from Frakes (1979); in: Watts, https://Wattsvpwiththat.com/2014/09/08/Monday.)

Sorokhtin et al. (2011) defined life on the Earth as a concourse of several circumstances. These circumstances include: (1) a quiet star, e.g., Sun; (2) the optimum distance of the Earth to the Sun throughout the Earth's orbit about the Sun; (3) the presence of a massive satellite, e.g., the moon; (4) chemical composition of the primordial Earth and its atmosphere; and (5) several other causes reviewed in detail in the monograph by Sorokhtin and Ushakov (2002). Climatic conditions for life habitation on the Earth was a result of changing atmospheric composition (see Figure 1.3) and pressure and to a feedback between the evolution of the Earth biota and atmosphere.

Figure 1.3 A climatic paradox: The sun luminosity increases over time, whereas Earth's temperature gets cooler. Curve 1 - average isotopic water temperature that is sea-flint forming in, also describes the average temperature for the global, near-bottom of sea floor ocean water. The dots are d18O values for the sea-flint (after Schopf, 1982). Curve 2 - temperature of an absolutely black body at the distance of Earth-from-sun, which describes the sun's luminosity.

Concepts by Some of Global Warming

Today by some, a major environmental concern is the release of human generated carbon to the atmosphere (anthropogenic). It is thought by these individuals, without either historic or scientific evidence, that humans are putting too much carbon in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2) or methane (CH4) into the atmosphere and that this anthropogenic carbon is somehow responsible for what they feel is global warming.

The Earth's climate (temperature) is primarily determined by: (1) the Sun's radiation intensity, (2) the composition and density of the Earth's atmosphere and (3) the Earth's atmospheric capability to absorb and retain the Sun's energy. It is often, incorrectly assumed, that the heating of the Earth's atmosphere and surface is, to a substantial extent, only due to the capacity of various atmospheric gases that absorb the IR (heat) radiation from the Sun, ignoring the atmospheric pressure.

The concept that the Earth's atmosphere is heated by the greenhouse gases was first proposed by the Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius at the end of the nineteenth century. This idea is now postulated as obvious and accepted without verification [Maslin (2004) in: Enzler (2015); Budyko (1974 & 2002); Greenhouse effect (1989); and Petrosyants (1994)]. Svante proposed a relationship between atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere and global temperature, i.e., if only one increased the concentration of carbon dioxide, the atmosphere would absorb more energy.

Since then, this concept today is found within the conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Greenpeace, United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), and World Meteorological Organization (WMO). This same viewpoint was totally supported in the resolutions of the International Ecological Congresses in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1992) and Kyoto, Japan (1997).

It is assumed that the main danger to the Earth's climate arises from the fundamental energy sources of the modern economy through the release of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, into the atmosphere. Under some forecasts of the proponents of the manmade (anthropogenic) global warming concept, a warming of the Earth's surface temperature could increase 2.5 to 5 °C by the year 2100. The rise in the ocean level caused by this warming would reach 0.6 to 1.0 m, resulting in problems for the densely populated areas of the Earth along the continental shores. Other consequences of global warming have also been forecast, e.g., the spread of deserts, permafrost melting, soil erosion, etc.

The conventual theory of global warming states that the heating of the atmosphere's troposphere occurs as a direct result of the anthropogenic addition of carbon dioxide (CO2) and the methane (CH4) that is added to the Earth's atmosphere by man. As a result, the petroleum industry has often been singled out for blame, for the release of additional carbon (methane and carbon dioxide) into the atmosphere as it produces, handles and burns hydrocarbons. Some of these environmentalists also believe that today's increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide can be primarily attributed to any human activities that are related to the release of CO2 or CH4 to the atmosphere.

Earth's Historic Temperature Charts

Today's literature is filled with a wide variety of options about global warming and climate change. Unfortunately, these opinions are not always grounded in the Earth's temperature history or scientific facts, but rather in emotional feelings. This range of opinions include those by: (1) The National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration (NOAA) which has claimed that there has been no recent slowdown in global warming; (2) the Space and Science Research Corporation stating that the Earth is presently in a sustained phase of global cooling; and (3) some experts who state that we have been in a transition phase without significant warming or cooling for the past 20 years. These opinions are made without looking at the historic temperature charts of the Earth, leaving open the question of "Are we cooling, transitioning, or warming?"

Misuse of Temperature Charts

To correctly answer the question of the Earth's cooling or warming controversy, one must first look at temperature charts over the whole time of the Earth's geologic history to understand where we have been and where are we going. Understanding where we have been requires obtaining temperature charts (records) of temperatures before recorded history. Unfortunately, before recorded history, there was no recording of temperatures; however, there are several methods we can use to infer temperatures during these earlier periods of time. Temperature charts can be prepared by inferring temperatures obtained from ice cores, tree rings, etc. It should be noted that these values of temperatures obtained are approximations and not necessarily the exact values of the Earth's average surface temperatures (see Figure 1.2). Therefore, temperature charts, with values obtained by one method, may not always exactly match those temperatures obtained by a different method for the same period. Whenever possible, in preparing a temperature chart, it is preferable to use only temperatures that have been obtained by one technique. It has been said, Oranges are easily comparable to other oranges, but not necessarily when you directly compare apples to oranges. Also, many times it is not the inferred values of temperature that are important, but rather, the trends that a temperature chart data displays for a given period of time. This is particularly true when you have inferred temperatures from more than one method indicating slightly different numbers, but showing a similar trend.

Today, some portions of our planet experience extreme heat, whereas other areas experience the opposite. Temperature inferred at the poles should be expected to be cooler than the average surface temperatures inferred in other areas of the Earth and, therefore, not necessarily be expected to represent an average surface temperature for the Earth at that time. It has also been noted that climatic conditions of the two poles are not always similar. In examining a temperature chart, it is crucial to: (1) know what method was utilized to determine the temperatures and (2) whether in preparation of the chart, only one method was used to determine the temperatures.

Use of Paleoclimatology to Estimate Prehistoric Temperatures

Paleoclimatology is the study of historic climatic conditions, examining their causes and effects in the geologic past, using current data found in glacial...