It may sound obvious to say, but it is frequently forgotten in the Climate Change debate- the Earth goes through many different cycles. The rotational speed of the earth, the amount of carbon dioxide in the oceans, the shift of the poles are all evidence of long term cyclical change.
  
  The changing rotational speed of the earth  
  Because we have always known as day to be 24 hours and roughly 365 days a year (excluding leap years), most people including some scientists readily assume the rotational speed of the earth (1 day = 24 hours) has been constant. But is this true?
  
  One cycle that is rarely discussed at school is the roughly 220 to 240 Million orbit cycle of the Solar system once around the Galactic core of the Milky Way. Assuming the Earth is around 4.5 Billion years old, it means we have only orbited the Galactic core more than 19 times and less than 23 times.
  
  When you look at the Milky Way in the sky, there are huge differences in the galactic environment at different points. Close to the core of the Galaxy, huge black holes (Neutron Stars) smash up old solar system into sub-atomic elements to be re-assembed into Nebula the nursery of new stars.
 
  Around the perimeter where our Solar system travels with millions of other stars around 26,000 to 28,000 light years from the core, from time to time our Solar system has encountered huge deposits of Hydrogen and molecular rich clouds. Some of these encounters may have lasted millions of years, while other times it might have been for only a few thousand years.
  
  At the time of the dinosaurs there is strong evidence to suggest that the rotational speed of the earth was much faster resulting in shorter days (22 to 23 hours), higher gravity and a much hotter and wetter climate. At the same time, the orbit speed of the earth would be longer, so the Years would be long (more than 365 days).
  
  It is this climate animals that thrived were either very large, powerful limbed, waterproof skinned to cope with the conditions, or very small.
 
  Of course, today the rotational speed of the earth is measured as 24 hours. What then does this mean and what might cause the change?
  
  It is entirely possible that when our solar system in its orbit of the Milky Way encounters food rich environments such as large clouds of Hydrogen and molecules around the Galaxy the activity in the Solar system increases, much like the Spring and Summer seasons of a year.
  
  In contrast, when the Solar system goes through a period of low volumes of hydrogen, the rotation of the Earth slows and its orbit of the Sun increases much like an Autumn or Winter period.
  
  So depending upon where we are in our journey around the Milky Way can have a huge impact on the climate of the Earth for not just tens of years, but potentially millions of years.
  
  Meteorite Showers  
  Super large clouds of Hydrogen and molecules are not the only thing our Solar System and Earth enounters during its travel and cycle around the Milky Way- Frequently, our Solar System has come into contact with massive debris fields- collections of dust and rocks from micro size to a few kilometres in diameter.  
  Our solar system has a number of natural defence mechanisms- all geared to defend the most valuable planets- the iron planets and iron moons (that will one day be planets) around the major Hydrogen planets.  
  The Oort cloud is the first line of defence and acts much like a chain mesh net, filtering lots of smaller objects and helping deflect larger objects by impact. Next, the large Hydrogen planets have such strong gravity fields that they trape many inbound objects, growing their own orbiting debris fields or "rings". Then an object has to get through the inner asteroid belt, another field designed to disrupt impacts and finally an object might have a shot at the Earth.  
  But massive meteorite fields are a different matter. Simply there are too many of them to be completely removed. And during encounters with such fields, the arrival of any comet becomes a free ride for metallic meteorites into the inner orbit iron planets "swarming" as part of the tail of the comet.  
  In recent centuries because of the low encounter of meteorite fields, the meteorite "swarm" feature historically associated with comets has not been seen. But to our ancestors, the arrival of a comet almost always spelt impending doom as the metallic meteorites left the tail of the comet and were drawn to the "big iron ball" called Earth.  
  There is no question that we will encounter meteorite fields again in the near term are due to see the return to the "swarming" effect associated with the arrival of comets. The effect on the climate and the world is uncertain. If history is anything to go by, some meteorite swarms ended great civilizations.  
  The Carbon-dioxide catch-release system of the oceans  
  Until the last few decades, science did not have a full appreciation of just how much carbon-dioxide was existing in an absorbed state within the massive oceans of the Earth. It had been assumed that the majority of carbon-dioxide of the Earth as a gas was in the atmosphere. This is a crucial argument for those pushing the “humans are at fault” line concerning Climate Change.
  
  It turns out that this assumption is horribly wrong. The oceans potentially account for up to two-thirds of the total gas volume of carbon dioxide. In other words, the oceans are like giant sponge lungs, taking in huge quantities of carbon dioxide and then presumably releasing it under certain conditions.
  
  The effect of the oceans in carbon-dioxide absorption and release put all the trees that have ever existed on planet Earth to shame. The oceans are by far the biggest mechanism for controlling levels of CO2 on the planet.
  
  There are however three major problems with these crucial findings: the first is that science does not yet understand the mechanism that triggers the oceans to be in an absorption mode and when they are in a release mode- Remembering a huge release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere would heat up the atmosphere by making it more dense.
  
  The second problem is knowing whether we are in an absorption or a release phase with the oceans. For example, if a mechanism existed whereby the oceans released their huge quantities of carbon-dioxide- say the shut down of the currents, then this could potentially cause a rapid and catastrophic change in climate for many communities of human beings- first in creating hot-house conditions and then with sufficient gas creating a nuclear-winter effect of an ice age.
  
  Precession of the Earth axis  
  As the Earth rotates and travels around the sun its axis which is currently around 23.4 degrees is not stable. Instead, like a wobbling top, over time the Earth will wobble around its axis creating the net effect of increasing the angular position of the axis of the Earth relative to the equatorial plane of the sun (greater than 23.4 degrees) and over time creating the opposite effect (decreasing the angular position less than 23.4 degrees). This wobble effect is called Precession- or Precession of the Equinoxes.
  
  It is called precession of the equinoxes because over time, the plotting of the rise and fall of the spring equinox and the summer and winter solstice will change in relative position to the nighttime sky creating the effect of the sun visiting each “House” of the zodiac over a 25,770 year period.
  
  It is estimated that the Precession of the equinoxes occurs over a very large time frame around 25,770 years to complete one cycle. So the change in angle happens over a very long period (1 degree per 71.6 years). But over time, the exaggeration does have a significant impact on the climate of regions, particularly North of the tropic of Cancer and South of the Tropic of Capricorn.
  
  During a period of exaggerated axis momentum, the southern half of the earth is favoured with more exposure to the sun, increasing temperatures and associated heat, droughts and floods. Correspondingly, the temperatures in the northern half are cooler. The reverse is true for when the precession reduces the effective angular moment, favouring the Northern half of the planet with the southern half being cooler.
  
  While it is an extremely long cycle, even by a few degrees the precession has a significant impact on the long term seasons of the planet. During times that favoured the Northern Hemisphere, conditions around the Mediterranean were substantially wetter and warmer than they are today, enabling tremendous periods of cultural growth.
  
  The shift of the poles  
  Well before you and I were born, the Sahara was desert, the Arctic was the North Pole and Antarctica was the South Pole. That is how it is and how it seems to always have been. So it with some amazement that we find out underneath miles of ice in Antarctica are the remains of once lush forests.
  
  In other words, beyond such long term cycles as the Precession of the equinoxes (the Earth wobble), there also appears a cycle of the poles (axis) themselves relative to the crust of the Earth shifting.
  
  Just as seasons exist for a year, it appears the Earth has seasons for its crust whereby a region for a period is cold and the North or South Pole and the former cold region has a chance to spring back to new life.
  
  This is a particularly difficult concept to fathom. In part because we are taught such insane concepts as the “Continental Drift” theory of plate tectonics first espoused by Alfred Wegener in 1912. In truth, the Earth seems to naturally give all parts of its skin a season of life or sleep.
  
  Central Australia for example was once under ice. Antarctica will one day again be free of ice. The mechanism which is sometimes used to describe this shift is called the “Pole shift”.
  
  In fact the Earth has two sets of poles- one being the electro-magnetic poles and the second being the hydro-photon poles (true poles). The difference between the two is currently around 11 degrees and has been increasing at an accelerated rate over centuries.
  
  The Pole Shift theory remains highly controversial, in part because it debunks some of the most important earth theories of modern science concerning plate tectonic and earth behavior and secondly because it implies a far more living and conscious planet than even science would wish to consider.
  
  It means our understanding of the process is at best fuzzy. There is some idea that two cycles exist in terms of pole shift- the first being an actual shift of the poles themselves- around an 8,000 to 12,000 period that appears to be a fairly short time period of change and then a long period of stability and secondly a cycle of full Pole reversal (geomagnetic reversal) when the North Pole becomes the South Pole and the South Pole becomes the North Pole.
  
  In terms of Geomagnetic reversal, it is unclear precisely how often this occurs. A conservative estimate is something between every 500,000 and 800,000 years. Unfortunately, when discussing Pole Shift the concept of Geomagnetic reversal is often mistaken for the same name. Many of the people speaking of coming “Armageddon” when they speak of Pole shift actually mean Geomagnetic reversal.
  
     

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Earth cycles