Climate Change: Milankovitch Theory
1. Milankovitch theory project that earth’s climate could vary significantly resulting from extraneous factors that have absolutely nothing to do with human activity; and Milankovitch proposed that how the seasonal and latitudinal variations of solar radiation that hit the earth in different ways, and at different times, have the greatest impact on earth’s climate patterns. If earth’s axial tilt becomes larger or significant, then, earth’s seasons could become much more extreme. Similarly, if the earth’s rotational axis gets shifted significantly, then, depending on which hemisphere is pointed at the Sun during perihelion, the rotational axis shift can greatly impact the seasonal extremes between the two hemispheres.
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2. Milankovitch’s theory says that earth’s climate has always been changing, and it is in a constant state of flux in the absence of any human influence. And, Milankovitch cycles (which include earth’s eccentricity, obliquity and precession) play key roles in earth’s short-term weather and long-term climate, and these cycles remain responsible for triggering the beginning and end of glaciation periods.
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3. Axial precession makes seasonal contrasts more extreme in one hemisphere and less extreme in the other.
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4. Science, 10Dec1976, vol. 194, issue 4270, pp. 1121-1132: In 1976, a study in the journal Science by Hays et al. using deep-sea sediment cores found that Milankovitch cycles correspond with periods of major climate change over the past 450,000 years, with ice ages occurring when Earth was undergoing different stages of orbital variation; and Milankovitch’s theory essentially highlights that changes in the earth’s orbital geometry are the fundamental cause of the succession of quaternary ice ages.
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