Planet Earth makes it preposterous not me. As for me insulting, that is how you choose to take it. That is something over which I have no control. 7 years ago, our daughter in second grade learned that the Earth has been through many climate changes.
Not all climate changes have been brought about by cataclysmic events. A huge volcanic eruption usually brings bring about short-term climatic changes. Short term meaning a decade or a couple of decades.
Variations in the Earth's orbital characteristics however can last 100,000 years. This is when the Earth's orbit goes from elliptical to more circular and back affecting the amount of the variation in solar energy received at the top of the atmosphere.
A 2nd cyclical variation results from the fact that as the Earth rotates on its polar axis, it wobbles like a spinning top changing the orbital timing of the equinoxes and solstices. This effect is known as the precession of the equinox which has a cycle of about 26000 years.
The 3rd is the earth's tilt. Right now it's at 23.5 but can vary from approximately 22.5 to 24.5°. A small tilt means less variation in temperatures between winter and summer in the middle and high latitudes. Of course, a greater tilt means the opposite. The tilt cycles last about 41000 years.
Another event having a big impact is sunspot activity. To make a very long explanation short, very little sunspot activity was occurring on the sun's surface during The Little Ice Age, a time of a much cooler global climate and some scientists correlate this occurrence with a reduction in solar activity over a period of 90 or 180 years.
Sorry for the long post but there is a lot of scientific information out there, much of it by climatologists who have debunked the global warming theory which led to "global warming" now being called climate change.
