Global Warming, and why not global Dimming?

[Spaceoff]

If the world can heat, dont you think it should be coming cold again, nobody is forgetting gL-Di, right?


EDIT:

Do NOT post about lobal cooling-w-comparence to global dimming they are the same thing really so dont bug me or ill just ignore you.

 

[rhialto]

remind me, whats gldi, i seem to have forgotten.

As for global cooling, that happened in the ice age, but there isnt anything humanly possible and humanly motivatable (is that a word?) that we can do.

 

[Spaceoff]

its global dimming

 

[Pounder]

Global cooling can happen when volcanic activity is high. Unlike greenhouse gases that let the heat in and keep it in, volcanic ash has more of an insulating effect.

 

[Broom_89]

Perhaps after a severe eruption, agricutral output could fall?

 

[TheeLord]

hehe, kinda neat.. but totally not fun. The whole world would slip into starvation for 5 turns. Every time it would happen you would just be like.. SONOFA $%@$! and thats it..

 

[rhialto]

Yeah, that kind of global cooling from a mega-volcano has no fun aspect, it reduces your production for an uncontrolable reason, and it reduces everyones production, resulting in no strategic effect.

I suppose we could have a nuclear winter option if you get too crazy with the nukes, but that is already keyed into the health stat. Perhaps part of teh health stat should be based on the local city and part on teh global environment?

 

[Graadiapolistan]

If global warming happens- the icecaps melt, more water in oceans- global dimming- ice age

nuclear winter

both shoiuld be forms of global dimming available

since civ4 isn't supposed to be the real world, why not play 1/100 game where another ice age kicks in with glaciers destroying cities and such. It would be fun

An option at the start screen would perhaps be- Global climate changes on or off

 

[rhialto]

Is this teh first time ever that "global dimming" has been used? Ive seen plenty of references to global cooling , but not dimming.

 

[bkwrm79]

You could have to pollute a certain amount or see your civilization wiped out by icebergs, but if you pollute too much the planet will heat up.

 

[Graadiapolistan]

"Global dimming" is a term meaning the cooling of the general atosphere of earth

In the case of global warming, on Earth, the icecaps would melt. This would cause more water on the surface of the earth. Considering that liquid water has a higher specific heat then solid water (ice) or land, the water would not heat up as much in the summer. Most scientists believe that this will cause a period of global dimming (cooling) and eventually, lead to another ice age.

This has nothing to do with icebergs. A civilizaiton can not be "knocked out" by icebergs, but considering that you are not on the planet earth in civilization it would be nice to be able to experience climate changes that could have happened to earth. Considering climate changes take thousands of years (without humans to "help" things along) perhaps in a game you play, by the year 150 b.c.e. some forests turn into pine forests, and glaciers for in the north, that wipe out cities and can't be built on. This would actually cause fewer icebergs, because the glaciers ae spreading, not shrinking, in this case.

Although it wouldn't do too much to the game, it would be a fun concept to play around with, and not every game would experience global dimming, only about one in twenty

 

[Pounder]

Global cooling should not be in the game as the game only spans over about 6000 years and the cycle from one ice age to the next is at least 100,000 years.

 

[Spaceoff]

ok, well, im gona think of something better to post about.

 

[rhialto]

I just googled for "global cooling" and "global dimming". The cooling version seems to be more popular among academic websites (.edu or .ac.uk types), while dimming seems more common among mass media news sites, blogs, and 'free for all' online encyclopediae such as Wikipedia.

 

[Graadiapolistan]

My Brother (younger) earth science high school textbook says global dimming

Although ice ages span over 100s of thousands of years, it would be fun if once in a while, once evry 20-50 games, global dimming or warming occurred, just as part of a cycle

Also of course global cooling could be the effect of nuclear war or rampant global warming in the game

 

[bkwrm79]

Actually the Earth does experience quite significant natural changes in temperature over comparatively small periods of time. How long ago was it the Vikings settled on Iceland and Greenland? Climate change destroyed the Greenland colony, over a span of at most hundreds of years, certainly not thousands.

 

[Pounder]

Actually the Earth does experience quite significant natural changes in temperature over comparatively small periods of time. How long ago was it the Vikings settled on Iceland and Greenland? Climate change destroyed the Greenland colony, over a span of at most hundreds of years, certainly not thousands.

There are mini cycles that could last a few hundred years of warmer or cooler temperatures. Ususally due to increased or deceased volcanic activity.

True ice ages where the polars caps build and glaciers decend thousands of miles/kilometres over the continents pushing massive debris piles and leaving moraines only happen over much larger cycles. The last ice age came down south of the great lakes in North America.

Technically we are still coming out of an ice age that peaked 50,000 years ago, as there are still sheets of ice covering Greenland and Antartica. They may be completely gone over the next 10,000 years or less.

 

[Darwin420]

Isn't that why we can select the climate variables for the world?

WARM, TEMPERATE, COOL
WET, NORMAL, DRY

.. these allow you different temp variations for the 6,000 year reign of civilization... so to include shifts from Global Warming/Cooling is unnecessary and unrealistic.

However, I do agree that civilizations should have some effect on the landscape... the Sahara has been growing exponentially for centuries; The deforestation in Britain has changed climate a little; Greenland's changing climate was mentioned; over-irrigation and over-grazing has turned fertile plains and grasslands into deserts - likewise, intense efforts have helped bring water to deserts, and have gradually been changing them to slightly more fertile areas (although it's easier to destroy than to create).

It would be nice to see my empire be affected by its own actions. The Gaia effect, I guess you could call it.

 

[Spaceoff]

So are you people thinking about if it's good or not, or are you all just going to tell me you're science facts?

 

[GoodGame]

Come to think of it, the magnetosphere is supposedly heading towards a reversal in under 1000 years, with a break-down in the di-pole, and an increase of solar radiation.