On: A long view of globalisation in short: The agricultural revolution (2018)

[reedwolf]

"Climate scientists don't know why, but, starting 20 millennia ago, the earth’s climate began to warm."

Maybe it's just something the Earth does.

[MereInterest → reedwolf]

While true, I would recommend reading this comic, showing the different rates of warming.

https://xkcd.com/1732/

[tigasis → MereInterest]

that was a long post but amazing

[ipnon → reedwolf]

Right, the question is "why does the Earth just warm sometimes, specifically 20 millennia ago?"

[redis_mlc → ipnon]

There's lots of things that affect albedo (volcanos, large meteor strikes, glaciation) and also sunspots.

The Great Lakes basins were caused by glaciers. They're not called Great for no reason - they're huge, and some are deep. They "contain 21% of the world's surface fresh water by volume."

It's hard to imagine Earth being covered by ice down to 42 degrees latitude. The more ice, the more reflection of solar rays (albedo.)