Comments on: New research shows that the amount of heat the planet traps has roughly doubled since 2005 https://www.habitablezone.com/2021/06/17/new-research-shows-that-the-amount-of-heat-the-planet-traps-has-roughly-doubled-since-2005/ Mon, 06 Apr 2026 12:03:37 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: ER https://www.habitablezone.com/2021/06/17/new-research-shows-that-the-amount-of-heat-the-planet-traps-has-roughly-doubled-since-2005/#comment-46938 ER Fri, 18 Jun 2021 15:00:58 +0000 https://habitablezone.com/?p=88367#comment-46938 If I had to guess, I'd say it was from the loss of high-latitude summer sea ice, particularly in the Arctic. The solar radiation is going into the dark sea instead of being reflected back into space. The result is a net heat gain. The good news is that some other mechanism (like increased cloud cover due to enhanced evaporation in the equatorial regions) will arise to counteract the effect. We know this is the case because earth has had heating and cooling spikes before but they have never run away catastrophically and led to a Mars or Venus scenario. Earth abides, it has built in feedback stabilizers. Unfortunately, there is a lag time involved... Sooner or later, the system will stabilize at a new equilibrium point. However, the question arises, will world agriculture, settlement patterns, and industrial capacity be able to adapt quickly enough to avoid societal collapse? The earth will survive this crisis, but will world civilization get through it? Maybe this is the hidden reason behind the sudden rise in fascist regimes and authoritarian politics amongst the world's democracies. Maybe, subconsciously, we are collectively deciding that cutthroat competition will be more effective, at least in the short term, than cooperation. I fear the cure may be worse than the disease. That is a scenario where the earth itself may not abide after all. If I had to guess, I’d say it was from the loss of high-latitude summer sea ice, particularly in the Arctic. The solar radiation is going into the dark sea instead of being reflected back into space. The result is a net heat gain.

The good news is that some other mechanism (like increased cloud cover due to enhanced evaporation in the equatorial regions) will arise to counteract the effect.
We know this is the case because earth has had heating and cooling spikes before but they have never run away catastrophically and led to a Mars or Venus scenario. Earth abides, it has built in feedback stabilizers. Unfortunately, there is a lag time involved…

Sooner or later, the system will stabilize at a new equilibrium point. However, the question arises, will world agriculture, settlement patterns, and industrial capacity be able to adapt quickly enough to avoid societal collapse? The earth will survive this crisis, but will world civilization get through it?

Maybe this is the hidden reason behind the sudden rise in fascist regimes and authoritarian politics amongst the world’s democracies. Maybe, subconsciously, we are collectively deciding that cutthroat competition will be more effective, at least in the short term, than cooperation. I fear the cure may be worse than the disease. That is a scenario where the earth itself may not abide after all.

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