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Originally Posted by Rudel73
what i dont understand is how all this climate change happened before man was around? Like the ice age etc...there was no man around to mess anything up so why did the climate change? is it not normal for the climate to change on its own??
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This is probrably going to stretch the page, but...
Milankovich Cycles.
The eccentricity is the especially important part for you to understand, but all three parts, eccentricity, tilt and precession combine to dictate our interglaciation. The cycle that is relatively circular around the sun gives even heating throught the year. The axis tilt is also pretty minor which keeps the sun angles at the poles steep throughout the year. (Ice build up)
The odd heating eccentricity has the earth very close to the sun for half the year, and direct sunlight that is heating the earth moves substantially north and south of the equator. This is a heating cycle.
We are in the circular part of the cycle right now. We should be getting colder.
Here, read up on the
Milankovich Cycle