thoughts?

well it does have factors on tide but apart from that i don't see how it will

guess we have to wait and see.the moon already affects us,with the tides and what-not.but since its going to be really close it might be pulling the tides to much and cause flooding and or it could pull enough to cause earthquakes.
 
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Well since it said as close as in the last 18 years and nothing happen 18 years ago, my guess is Nada/Nothing.
 
Slightly closer may suit a conspiracy theorist but makes very little difference. The oceans are sloshing around, the crust is not.

I have wondered though, whether the Moon has an indirect effect on Global Warming. We forget that we stand on top of a molten fireball. We know very little about the Earth's core and how the Moon's (and other planets') gravity affects it. That's forgetting dark matter etc we may encounter in our Galactic orbit. Perhaps it's me that knows very little.

We already know that the magnetic poles slowly shift. Slight shifts in the Earth's core currents could change the heat coming from below, in turn releasing CO2 from the oceans. CO2 is about 300 times more soluble than O2 and the warmer the oceans get the more CO2 is released. Over 90% of the Earth's CO2 storage is in the oceans. Methane would also be released in greater quantities if the sea bed warmed.

Although it's probably coincidental, the Moon's 18 year orbit reduction mentioned in the linked article happens to be about the time Global Warming started to be noticed.
 
So what happened 18 years ago when the same thing happened?

Let's all hope that some asteroid doesn't hit the moon and drives it closer to Earth. Seriously. Then we'll have a megamoon and all these catastrophes will happen.
 
Although there are some cyclic events (going round the Sun, the Milky Way, wobbles of the Earth), nothing is ever repeated. You only have to look at the incredible changes in the Earth over even the last billion years. There is no real pattern. Global warming for example has happened numerous times in the past as has global cooling. Way back when, the Moon was very close to Earth (60,000 miles?). Fortunately there were no boats back then, nor water; the tides and surfing would have been awesome!

Re asteroid hitting the Moon, sooner there than hitting Earth. The Moon has probably saved Earth numerous times already. You only have to look at its surface. An asteroid hitting the Moon would make a good crater and dust cloud but with no atmosphere the dust would settle. The same event on Earth would cause life extinction due to the blast, tsunamis and long-term freezing by dust blocking the Sun.
 
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