Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to Temperature rise

re: Temperature rise
gbaikie — (archived)

"Someone discussing global warming on TV a couple of days ago likened a 2 degree rise in temperature (Fahrenheit) to a human having a fever. I thought it an interesting analogy."

It's commonly thought humans have a normal temperature of 98.6

Wiki:
"Previously, average oral temperature for healthy adults had been considered 37.0 °C (98.6 °F), while normal ranges are 36.1 °C (97.0 °F) to 37.8 °C (100.0 °F). In Poland and Russia, the temperature had been measured axillary. 36.6 °C was considered "ideal" temperature, while normal ranges are 36 °C to 36.9 °C.

Recent studies suggest that the average temperature for healthy adults is 98.2 °F or 36.8 °C (same result in three different studies). Variations (one standard deviation) from three other studies are:
# 36.4 - 37.1 °C
# 36.3 - 37.1 °C for males, 36.5 - 37.3 °C for females
# 36.6 - 37.3 °C
Variations from thermometer placement

Temperature varies according to thermometer placement, with rectal temperature being 0.3-0.6 °C (0.5-1 °F) higher than oral temperature, while axillary temperature is 0.3-0.6 °C (0.5-1 °F) lower than oral temperature."

So, you kinda right. And it matters where you stick the thermometer.

And current global temperatures are somewhere around the time of some people's morning commute.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:1911_Animal_heat.png


But Humans have probably have maintain around their current body for a million year- whereas the Earth has not. Most of last million years Earth has been in a ice age with average global temperature colder than the current Interglacial period which lasted about 10,000 years.

Earth doesn't compare well with humans or other mammals, it's more similar to a reptile- and generally reptiles tend to like even warmer periods than today's.

"The chain reaction effect is thought-provoking. We see in history how various peoples have disappeared (i.e. Native American cliff-dwellers in the Southwest) and archaeologists speculate as to cause. In the future, areas of the United States may become void of population where once thriving cities existed. In a couple of thousand years, after all this has come and become either permanent with all the resulting sociological results or has been mitigated or reversed, also with sociological results, I wonder if some archaeologist will look at the former location of say Wichita, KS and ask, "Where did all the people go?" "

Florida?

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