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indn241arobrts · 6 years ago

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GLOBAL WARMING TIMELINE

1859 Tyndall demonstrates that some gases block infrared radiation, and notes that changes in the concentration of the gases could bring climate change.

1879 International Meteorological Organization begins to compile and standardize global weather data, including temperature.

1896 Arrhenius publishes first calculation of global warming from human emissions of CO2.

1897 Chamberlin produces a model for global carbon exchange including feedbacks.

1870-1910 Second Industrial Revolution. Fertilizers and other chemicals, electricity, and public health further accelerate growth.

1914-1918 World War I; governments learn to mobilize and control industrial societies.

1920-1925 Opening of Texas and Persian Gulf oil fields inaugurates era of cheap energy.

The 1930s Global warming trend since late 19th century reported. Milankovitch proposes orbital changes as the cause of ice ages.

1938 Callendar argues that CO2 greenhouse global warming is underway, reviving interest in the question.

1939-1945 World War II. Military grand strategy is largely driven by a struggle to control oil fields.

1945 US Office of Naval Research begins generous funding of many fields of science, some of which happen to be useful for understanding climate change.

1955 Phillips produces a convincing computer model of the global atmosphere.

1956 Ewing and Donn offer a feedback model for quick ice age onset.

Plass calculates that adding CO2 to the atmosphere will have a significant effect on the radiation balance.

1957 The launch of Soviet Sputnik satellite. Cold War concerns support 1957-58 International Geophysical Year, bringing new funding and coordination to climate studies.

Revelle finds that CO2 produced by humans will not be readily absorbed by the oceans.

1958 Telescope studies show a greenhouse effect raises temperature of the atmosphere of Venus far above the boiling point of water.

1960 Mitchell reports downturn of global temperatures since the early 1940s.

Keeling accurately measures CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere and detects an annual rise. The level is 315 ppm. Mean global temperature (five-year average) is 13.9°C.

1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, peak of the Cold War.

1963 Calculations suggest that feedback with water vapor could make the climate acutely sensitive to changes in CO2 level.

First meeting of experts concerned with global warming warns that a rise in sea level is likely, with "immense flooding" of shorelines.

1965 Boulder, Colorado meeting on causes of climate change: Lorenz and others point out the chaotic nature of climate system and the possibility of sudden shifts.

1966 Emiliani's analysis of deep-sea cores and Broecker's analysis of ancient corals show that the timing of ice ages was set by small orbital shifts, suggesting that the climate system is sensitive to small changes.

1967 International Global Atmospheric Research Program established, mainly to gather data for better short-range weather prediction, but including climate.

Manabe and Wetherald make a convincing calculation that doubling CO2 would raise world temperatures a couple of degrees.

1968 Studies suggest a possibility of collapse of Antarctic ice sheets, which would raise sea levels catastrophically.

1969 Astronauts walk on the Moon, and people perceive the Earth as a fragile whole. Budyko and Sellers present models of catastrophic ice-albedo feedbacks. Nimbus III satellite begins to provide comprehensive global atmospheric temperature measurements.

1970 First Earth Day. Environmental movement attains strong influence, spreads concern about global degradation.

Creation of US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the world's leading funder of climate research.

Aerosols from human activity are shown to be increasing swiftly. Bryson claims they counteract global warming and may bring serious cooling.

1971 SMIC conference of leading scientists reports a danger of rapid and serious global change caused by humans, calls for an organized research effort. Mariner 9 spacecraft finds a great dust storm warming the atmosphere of Mars, plus indications of a radically different climate in the past.

1972 Ice cores and other evidence show big climate shifts in the past between relatively stable modes in the space of a thousand years or so, especially around 11,000 years ago. Droughts in Africa, Ukraine, India cause world food crisis, spreading fears about climate change.

1973 The oil embargo and price rise bring first "energy crisis".

1974 Serious droughts since 1972 increase concern about climate, with cooling from aerosols suspected to be as likely as warming; scientists doubt all theories as journalists talk of a new ice age.

1975 Warnings about environmental effects of airplanes lead to investigations of trace gases in the stratosphere and discovery of danger to ozone layer.

Manabe and collaborators produce complex but plausible computer models which show a temperature rise of a few degrees for doubled CO2.

1976 Studies show that CFCs (1975) and also methane and ozone (1976) can make a serious contribution to the greenhouse effect. Deep-sea cores show a dominating influence from 100,000-year Milankovitch orbital changes, emphasizing the role of feedbacks. Deforestation and other ecosystem changes are recognized as major factors in the future of the climate. Eddy shows that there were prolonged periods without sunspots in past centuries, corresponding to cold periods.

1977 Scientific opinion tends to converge on global warming, not cooling, as the chief climate risk in the next century.

1978 Attempts to coordinate climate research in US end with an inadequate National Climate Program Act, accompanied by rapid but temporary growth in funding.

1979 Second oil "energy crisis." Strengthened environmental movement encourages renewable energy sources, inhibits nuclear energy growth. US National Academy of Sciences report finds it highly credible that doubling CO2 will bring 1.5-4.5°C global warming. World Climate Research Programme launched to coordinate international research.

1981 Election of Reagan brings backlash against environmental movement to power. Political conservatism is linked to skepticism about global warming. IBM Personal Computer introduced. Advanced economies are increasingly delinked from energy. Hansen and others show that sulfate aerosols can significantly cool the climate, raising confidence in models that incorporate aerosols and show future greenhouse warming. Some scientists predict greenhouse warming "signal" should become visible around the year 2000.

1982 Greenland ice cores reveal drastic temperature oscillations in the space of a century in the distant past. Strong global warming since mid-1970s is reported, with 1981 the warmest year on record.

1983 Reports from US National Academy of Sciences and Environmental Protection Agency spark conflict; greenhouse warming becomes a factor in mainstream politics. Speculation over catastrophic climate change following a nuclear war, or a dinosaur-killing asteroid strike, promote realization of the atmosphere's fragility.

1985 Ramanathan and collaborators announce that global warming may come twice as fast as expected, from rise of methane and other trace greenhouse gases. Villach Conference declares consensus among experts that some global warming seems inevitable, calls on governments to consider international agreements to restrict emissions. Antarctic ice cores show that CO2 and temperature went up and down together through past ice ages, pointing to powerful feedbacks. Broecker speculates that a reorganization of North Atlantic Ocean circulation can bring swift and radical climate change.

1986 Meltdown of reactor at Chernobyl (Soviet Union) cripples plans to replace fossil fuels with nuclear power. 1987 Montreal Protocol of the Vienna Convention imposes international restrictions on emission of ozone-destroying gases.

1988 News media coverage of global warming leaps upward following record heat and droughts plus statements by Hansen. Toronto conference calls for strict, specific limits on greenhouse gas emissions; UK Prime Minister Thatcher is first major leader to call for action. Ice-core and biology studies confirm living ecosystems give climate feedback by way of methane, which could accelerate global warming. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is established.

1989 Fossil-fuel and other U.S. industries form Global Climate Coalition to tell politicians and the public that climate science is too uncertain to justify action.

1990 First IPCC report says world has been warming and future warming seems likely.

1991 Mt. Pinatubo explodes; Hansen predicts cooling pattern, verifying (by 1995) computer models of aerosol effects. Global warming skeptics claim that 20th-century temperature changes followed from solar influences. (The solar-climate correlation would fail in the following decade.) Studies from 55 million years ago show possibility of eruption of methane from the seabed with enormous self-sustained warming.

1992 Conference in Rio de Janeiro produces UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, but US blocks calls for serious action. Study of ancient climates reveals climate sensitivity to CO2 in same range as predicted independently by computer models.

1993 Greenland ice cores suggest that great climate changes (at least on a regional scale) can occur in the space of a single decade.

1995 Second IPCC report detects "signature" of human-caused greenhouse effect warming, declares that serious warming is likely in the coming century. Reports of the breaking up of Antarctic ice shelves and other signs of actual current warming in polar regions begin affecting public opinion.

1997 Toyota introduces Prius in Japan, first mass-market electric hybrid car; swift progress in large wind turbines, solar electricity, and other energy alternatives. International conference produces Kyoto Protocol, setting targets for industrialized nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions if enough nations sign onto a treaty (rejected by US Senate in advance).

1998 A "Super El Niño" makes this an exceptionally warm year, equaled in later years but not clearly exceeded until 2014. Borehole data confirm extraordinary warming trend. Qualms about arbitrariness in computer models diminish as teams model ice-age climate and dispense with special adjustments to reproduce current climate.

1999 Criticism that satellite measurements show no warming are dismissed by National Academy Panel. Ramanathan detects massive "brown cloud" of aerosols from South Asia.

2000 Global Climate Coalition dissolves as many corporations grapple with threat of warming, but oil lobby convinces US administration to deny problem. Variety of studies emphasize variability and importance of biological feedbacks in carbon cycle, liable to accelerate warming.

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indn241arobrts · 6 years ago

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INTERSTELLAR TESSERACT - EXPLAINED

A basic “tesseract” is a cube within a larger cube, but Nolan has created a much more complex tesseract in Interstellar. Ascending from the singularity in Gargantua, the Tesseract is a three-dimensional representation of our four-dimensional reality (three physical dimensions plus time) inside the five-dimensional (four dimensions plus time) hyperspace inhabited by the “bulk beings.” Most likely, the bulk beings are humans from a more advanced civilization in the future, perhaps examples of the Ubermensch theorized by Nietzsche. As Cooper explains to TARS: “Don’t you get it yet, TARS? They’re not beings. They’re us! What I’ve been doing for Murph, I’ve been doing for me. For all of us.”

Not unlike how the extraterrestrials inspired the apes to evolve and become humans in 2001, the advanced humans are helping Cooper, TARS, and Murph “save the world” because it will make possible the existence of human beings in the future. Recall that Murph is Cooper’s science-oriented daughter whom he left behind on Earth, an event that left Murph feeling Cooper may well have abandoned her in the effort to save himself in space. While Cooper is traversing wormholes and black holes, Murph becomes a genius physicist working with Professor Brand to solve the quantum gravity problem.

Functioning like a labyrinth across time, the Tesseract contains a physical representation of all possible times in Murph’s bedroom, from childhood to when she is a physicist. By navigating through the Tesseract, Cooper is able to view Murph as a child and adult. The walls of the Tesseract are like event horizons inside Gargantua. Light can pass from Murph’s room to Cooper, but not from Cooper to Murph’s room, precisely because no light can escape from a black hole. That’s why Cooper can only contact Murph via gravity through space-time. As TARS says: “You’ve seen that time is represented here as a physical dimension. You’ve worked out that you can exert a force across space-time.” Thus, by slamming his fist against the walls of the Tesseract, Cooper sends gravitational waves into Murph’s room and causes the books to fall on the floor (back when she was a child).

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