Climate Change May Alter Earth's Rotation

The basic premise behind man-made climate change is a simple one: Earth's atmosphere naturally contains greenhouse gases that keep our planet warm enough to be liveable. When we burn fossil fuels, though, we increase the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, disrupting Earth's ideal balance nature had developed. The result is global warming (an increase in the planet's average annual temperature) which, in turn, triggers climate change.

Some impacts of global warming and climate change are exactly as you'd expect -- weather is getting warmer and glaciers are melting. Other impacts, though, are less predictable: sea levels are rising; global health is facing major problems; the size of plants and animals is changing; satellites are traveling faster in their orbits; and mountains are getting taller. And now, a new study suggests that climate has the potential to actually speed up Earth's rotation, resulting in some shorter days.

Stephen Marcus and his colleagues at NASA and the Institute of Earth Physics of Paris in France say the Antarctic Circumpolar Current slowed abruptly for two weeks in November 2009. The resulting faster rotation during that time shortened each day by 0.1 milliseconds. While they're not sure of the cause of the slower current in this case, they acknowledge that it is more likely to slow again more often in the future as a result of climate change. Not only could climate change impact the ocean current, but those rising sea levels I mentioned earlier will shift water towards the poles, drawing mass closer to Earth's axis, thus increasing the rate of Earth's spin.

If these climate-triggered impacts come to pass, we'll all owe a debt of gratitude to global warming: creator of a shorter 39.999999 hour work week!

Special thanks to guest artist Reena Wagner for her contribution of the puppy character, "Puggis" that makes an appearance in today's strip.

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Comments

[Terry]

04:26 PM on 03/03/2012

I think your approach to use humor that educates people about climate change is very valuable. Most other people approach it as religion, way too serious. Maybe their is some humor in the last few days of major tornadoes. It is tragic, but somewhere we must find some good in this. I think it will promote more understanding about our actual climate situation.

[Neil Wagner]

02:23 PM on 03/04/2012

I appreciate the supportive words! I think climate change is the single most important issue facing the human race, and if some information provided with humor helps spread the word a little better, I've done my job.

[ThinkCreeps]

02:59 PM on 03/02/2012

Melting polar ice caps would slow rotation, as the bulk of the mass shifts to the equator, increasing the moment of inertia, and lowering the angular velocity.

[SwiftJonathan]

08:20 PM on 03/01/2012

And I am sure that a complete literature search, taking a couple of days, would probably bring up several more papers.

This means that, in order to actually understand the final outcome, we would have to do some rather lengthy research of our own... probably exceeding the level of detail any of these scientists have engaged in.

I have to apologise to Neil Wagner... he has done his homework. Sadly... I am afraid that there is still no material for a good joke in there... I am still not laughing after having spent about an hour on this research and... to be honest... I don't care enough to go all the way to the bottom of this.

[SwiftJonathan]

08:19 PM on 03/01/2012

OK... let's look a the science:

"Detection of the Earth rotation response to a rapid fluctuation of Southern Ocean circulation in November 2009" GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, doi:10.1029/2011GL050671

That's a short term response to a shift in ocean circulation. Nothing to get excited about, as it will change in the future.

"Ocean bottom pressure changes lead to a decreasing length-of-day in a warming climate"
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 34, L06307, 5 PP., 2007
doi:10.1029/2006GL029106

This is a long term effect of the ocean bottom pressure changing the mass distribution in the crust. For sure nothing one can estimate with high school level physics. I can't figure out a way to check the result of the authors without understanding their research in detail and redoing their calculations.

The third source

"The Sea-Level Fingerprint of West Antarctic Collapse" Science 6 February 2009: Vol. 323 no. 5915 p. 753

deals with the Antarctic ice sheet's role in particular and I can't tell from the abstract how complete their model is.

[nanobot]

06:01 PM on 03/01/2012

Also, as the Earths rotation changes, it may perturb the solar cycle. There may be solar outbreaks.

[Mike Pristave]

05:22 PM on 03/01/2012

[citation needed]

"A new study" has been said for polar bear farts causing cancer and cars turning alive and killing people. Give me scientific articles not suggestions and hypothesis.

[Darkingz]

08:42 AM on 03/02/2012

well science is all about hypothesis... and the outcomes of many research hours. While its true that maybe more "science" articles would be better there may not be enough ground breaking science going on to write on anything but hypothesis.

[CRAZYWORLD2]

11:19 PM on 03/03/2012

what like you realy care ?

[grappler1987]

02:00 AM on 03/01/2012

"rising sea levels I mentioned earlier will shift water towards the poles, drawing mass closer to Earth's axis, thus increasing the rate of Earth's spin."

Interesting. I wonder how. This article seems to suggest the opposite.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16545-antarctic-bulge-could-flood-washington-dc.html

[Neil Wagner]

01:50 PM on 03/01/2012

Good link! It's from a couple of years ago — I'd be curious to know who the researchers from your article would approach the study I cited... or if they've changed their analysis at all.

[grappler1987]

03:15 PM on 03/01/2012

Yeah, very interesting stuff. Between the link you posted and the one I posted, I think five mechanism are mentioned:

[2012]
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328515.100-ocean-current-slowdown-made-earth-spin-faster.html
1) Wind slows down -- earth spins faster
2) Ocean current slows down -- earth spins faster

[2007] (I couldn't find this one on first read, which is why "I wondered how".)
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn11555-global-warming-will-make-earth-spin-faster.html
3) Higher latitude waters more dense -- earth spins faster
4) Tidal friction -- earth spins slower [non-climate change related]

[2009]
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16545-antarctic-bulge-could-flood-washington-dc.html
5) Less ice sheet gravity pulling water to poles -- earth spins slower

It is a very complex nonlinear problem. I had really only thought about the tidal part prior to your article. Thanks.

[neptune2]

06:51 PM on 02/29/2012

If the water went to the equator it would be like an ice skater putting her arms out to SLOW HER SPINNING.

Where does this author get the idea the earth would speed up. ?

[SwiftJonathan]

07:57 PM on 03/01/2012

Well... it seems like the science facts are more complicated than that, because there might be several different process at work which have different signs... which kills the joke in just any way imaginable.

[BluePhantom2]

05:19 PM on 02/29/2012

OK is this satire or a vieled message delivered by a Calvin & Hobbs like cartoon? As usual the earths natural cycles are omittef and the question of "What is earths ideal temp supposed to be".

[Neil Wagner]

06:15 PM on 02/29/2012

First, climate models take things like the Milankovitch cycles into account. That's a given, no reason for this particular comic strip to address that angle. Second, the climate does not change in "natural cycles." It takes something external like a volcanic eruption or man's greenhouse gas emissions to force the climate to change.
* Climate models: http://www.skepticalscience.com/climate-models.htm
* Milankovitch cycles: http://www.sciencefriday.com/blog/2010/11/climate-change-whats-normal-whats-not/
* Climate doesn't have cycles: http://www.skepticalscience.com/news.php?n=512&p=3

[Trepasky]

08:58 PM on 02/29/2012

What seems to matter more is what will our climate be tomorrow if it continues?
If the past can help us great then it is useful otherwise looking in the past becomes a distraction from the present.

[SwiftJonathan]

12:58 PM on 02/29/2012

Wow... that was a total waste of my time.

[Trepasky]

08:58 PM on 02/29/2012

Sadly you bothered anyway

[SwiftJonathan]

07:36 PM on 03/01/2012

I also bothered to tell the other "satirist" that he doesn't understand that the rotation period change is an angular momentum conservation and not an energy problem. Yes, I do bother to tell people when they are out of their depths with high school physics problems... or quantum mechanics, or relativity.

Is there something wrong with being told that you tried and failed? Smart people can learn from that and try, again. Only the not so smart ones complain that they are not being treated nicely.

[blair3b]

09:32 AM on 02/29/2012

Not that I get my news from cartoons.... assuming this is true.

If the notion is that sea-levels are rising due to a melting of ice caps (Goreans would say due to human causes), then the clear implication rather is a shift of water mass (whether ice or water) from the poles to other locations. These locations would be anywhere but at the poles and would by definition SLOW rotation as the mass would have greater angular momentum.

[SwiftJonathan]

05:03 PM on 02/29/2012

But if he had kept to reality, the joke wouldn't even work. Not that it's funny, anyway...

[Neil Wagner]

05:31 PM on 02/29/2012

You folks are cracking me up. Thanks for taking the time to read my post and feeling free to speak your minds.
One question, though: the basic facts referred to in the cartoon were pulled from the linked article in New Scientist. So a legitimate source of information was citing NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Institute of Earth Physics of Paris, and the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg. Do you feel their research doesn't qualify as "reality"?

[Neil Wagner]

01:59 PM on 03/01/2012

With "What on Earth" I use humor and concise text to make climate news accessible and engaging. I work very hard to cite legitimate, established, recognized sources to inspire — and support — what I draw and write. You'll often find links to supporting info from major universities, national academies of science, etc. I'm not a scientist, but I do "put my money on" the climate scientists who are diligently studying the topic.

[SwiftJonathan]

07:55 PM on 03/01/2012

That's a very acceptable position, however, in this case it seems to have backfired. For one thing... this was not very funny, no matter what the scientific context. Now... maybe I just don't get the joke, for another, the science may contradict the naive expectation of the scientist.

I would have said the very same... the poles melt down, water shifts to the equator, the rotation slows down. If there is another effect that over-compensates for this, then you have a case where you are losing the very audience who is on your side, at least without all of us doing some more research on the topic.

And as far as I can tell timing in humour is the critical thing... nobody laughs after researching moments of inertia change due to climate change... so the effect is gone one way or another.

[kelly hodgson]

09:42 PM on 02/28/2012

Hilarious. Especially that "size of animals" business. I don't see enough of this kind of satire on this site. It is encouraging that both sides of the debate are being covered but it would be nice to see a few more science oriented articles and not just ridicule of the CAGW orthodoxy.

[AnthropologistAmongApes]

01:24 AM on 02/29/2012

You've satirized yourself and thrown in an extra measure of unwitting irony for our amusement. I'm curious; what are your views on the natural world generally? Species extinction, biodiversity loss?

[Spencer P Lane]

08:50 PM on 02/28/2012

Not a new topic actually.

http://articles.businessinsider.com/2010-06-18/news/29962195_1_inertia-rotation-axis

[Neil Wagner]

06:05 PM on 03/01/2012

While your link is not about climate change, it very much addresses one of the stances often stated by climate change deniers: "We can't alter nature on that kind of scale!" Your article says otherwise. Three Gorges might be a nice addition to my "What on Earth" Encyclopedia of Human Impact.
http://www.sciencefriday.com/blog/2010/05/the-abcs-of-human-impact/

[cosmicdart]

07:00 PM on 02/28/2012

Then the pull of gravity on the equator would be less. It would be easier for us to launch our rockets into space. Perhaps this would also cause more seaquakes, earthquakes and volcanoes as geological forces within more likely to push out. Dust from volcanoes would then cause global cooling.