Ice age to affect Britain within decades?
Could Britain and Northern Europe be facing major climate change in the coming decades?
Read the entire story HERE
What are your thoughts on this? Could we see this unfold in our lives? Do you have doubts? Do you feel this is very possible?
Weigh in with your thoughts,
Fellows
Quote:
Britain is likely to be plunged into an ice age within our lifetime by global warming, new research suggests.
A study, which is being taken seriously by top government scientists, has uncovered a change "of remarkable amplitude" in the circulation of the waters of the North Atlantic.
Similar events in pre-history are known to have caused sudden "flips" of the climate, bringing ice ages to northern Europe within a few decades. The development - described as "the largest and most dramatic oceanic change ever measured in the era of modern instruments", by the US Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, which led the research - threatens to turn off the Gulf Stream, which keeps Europe's weather mild.
If that happens, Britain and northern Europe are expected to switch abruptly to the climate of Labrador - which is on the same latitude - bringing a nightmare scenario where farmland turns to tundra and winter temperatures drop below -20C. The much-heralded cold snap predicted for the coming week would seem balmy by comparison.
A report by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme in Sweden - launched by Nobel prize-winner Professor Paul Crutzen and other top scientists - warned last week that pollution threatened to "trigger changes with catastrophic consequences" like these.
Britain is likely to be plunged into an ice age within our lifetime by global warming, new research suggests.
A study, which is being taken seriously by top government scientists, has uncovered a change "of remarkable amplitude" in the circulation of the waters of the North Atlantic.
Similar events in pre-history are known to have caused sudden "flips" of the climate, bringing ice ages to northern Europe within a few decades. The development - described as "the largest and most dramatic oceanic change ever measured in the era of modern instruments", by the US Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, which led the research - threatens to turn off the Gulf Stream, which keeps Europe's weather mild.
If that happens, Britain and northern Europe are expected to switch abruptly to the climate of Labrador - which is on the same latitude - bringing a nightmare scenario where farmland turns to tundra and winter temperatures drop below -20C. The much-heralded cold snap predicted for the coming week would seem balmy by comparison.
A report by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme in Sweden - launched by Nobel prize-winner Professor Paul Crutzen and other top scientists - warned last week that pollution threatened to "trigger changes with catastrophic consequences" like these.
Read the entire story HERE
What are your thoughts on this? Could we see this unfold in our lives? Do you have doubts? Do you feel this is very possible?
Weigh in with your thoughts,
Fellows
Comments
The basic gist was that global warming would basically dilute the ocean with more fresh water, which would effectively suppress the North Atlantic current, which takes warm Caribbean water and transports it to Europe, and as air hits the warmer water, it too becomes warmer. This is how Europe is relatively warm despite it's relatively high latitudes (e.g., London is at the same latitude as Calgary, but has a significantly more moderate climate). By suppressing the North Atlantic current, that relative warmth is eliminated, and Europe basically is thrust into massive cooling due to global warming, with disastrous results.
From what I remember of the article, the reasoning was very sound. So, if people are interested, you can take a trek to the periodical's desk at your local library (yes, print magazines still exist), and the article was titled "The great climate flip-flop" by William Calvin in the January 1998 issue of Atlantic Monthly.
Originally posted by agent302
I actually read a very informative article about this in Atlantic Monthly by William Calvin, a professor at the University of Washington. I'd post a link, but I looked at the Atlantic Monthly website, and the article (for January 1998 ), is in the pay archive.
The basic gist was that global warming would basically dilute the ocean with more fresh water, which would effectively suppress the North Atlantic current, which takes warm Caribbean water and transports it to Europe, and as air hits the warmer water, it too becomes warmer. This is how Europe is relatively warm despite it's relatively high latitudes (e.g., London is at the same latitude as Calgary, but has a significantly more moderate climate). By suppressing the North Atlantic current, that relative warmth is eliminated, and Europe basically is thrust into massive cooling due to global warming, with disastrous results.
From what I remember of the article, the reasoning was very sound. So, if people are interested, you can take a trek to the periodical's desk at your local library (yes, print magazines still exist), and the article was titled "The great climate flip-flop" by William Calvin in the January 1998 issue of Atlantic Monthly.
Thank you agent302,
I found your article in a google search. FREE!!!
Here it is!!
If you scroll down some you will see the story!
Thanks for your weighing in!
Now I need to read that link,,
Fellows
Originally posted by Ganondorf
Fellowship is secretly Art Bell.
Eric you got me
It could be argued Art has some crazy subjects/topics and crazy people from time to time call in or be interviewed for that matter but C2C is interesting entertainment from time to time
Fellows
On the subject of another Ice age...... I hope it doesn't happen.
Most of my family is in Iceland and this would be terrible.
Its like if I died in a burning house because I didn´t dare go into the kitchen for water to put it out because I was afraid of ghosts.
Originally posted by Fellowship
Could Britain and Northern Europe be facing major climate change in the coming decades?
I think it will take really some time.
This is taken Saturday in UK. When in most europe it was snowing.
(bigger)
So, 24th January the temperature must have been 45-50 f. I would not suggest an ice age..
Originally posted by segovius
One day we might get it right. Probably not though.
If this is in fact a human creation, you can't just absolve yourself of the problem with off handed comments like this. We do have to share some of the responsibility.
Greenland is so-called because when it settled by Scandis in the middle ages it was ... green. Then it got cold in the space of c. 40 years and the settlers all died.
It's a phase shift, it's a binary thing. It takes no time at all.
It could be a little bit of both: cyclic climate changes, spurred or accelerated by man-made conditions.
a chilling effect on the bare bones of humanity, cold for sure freezing absolutely.
where will we park our suv's when not a roads to be seen much less their shine?
with frozen ground where will our dead go? with no fuel to warm our frost ridden hearths we will surely perish.
the steam barely rises above the smouldering columns before it comes back as snow.
where will we go?
But seriously... I have no doubt whatever that within the next 10-20 years we will see some very dramatic climate change. Of course, the Bushes of the world will tell you that it's just nature taking its course, so sit back and enjoy your mochachino, baby! Me, I look forward to my first Italian vacation one day, when I can skate freely on the streets of Venice.
After all the boat tours have folded up shop, I'm going to rent one of their offices for cheap and open Moogs' Ice Hockey Emporium. My dream is that one day, the Italians will field and Ice Hockey team the likes of which will make their brothers to the north (in Sweden and Finland) cringe with fear!
I did.
http://www.whoi.edu/
Ruth Curry BS
http://www.whoi.edu/WHOI/SciTechDir/ruth_g_curry.html
The article has her as being "Dr" yet as far as I can tell she only has a bachelors degree. Nice of the journalist to upgrade her degree.
I can't find the report on the site. Maybe it's in press. Which press I don't know.
Prof. Paul J. Crutzen Chemist
http://www.mpch-mainz.mpg.de/~air/crutzen/
Dose he know anything about "Physical Oceanography"
They can't even predict the weather next week and and we're to accept this as fact?
Originally posted by Akumulator
Didn't Art Bell disappear for a long time? What happened to him?
Business trip to Zeta Reticulii. Minor problems with customs. No biggie.
Aries 1B
Regardless, from geologic records we are due for an ice age anyway. its just a matter of time.
As for global warming itself, the ?conservatives? (funny name for them in this context) claim that the scientific jury is still out on it and that it is not possible to separate change in weather patterns due to human activity from changes that can occur naturally over time and therefore it is not possible to say absolutely that greenhouse gases are themselves causing a problem.
Perhaps this conservative claim is true at an ?absolute? level ? i.e., full and absolute proof has not been provided (and probably never will be) ? but the weight of evidence is mounting. In any case, my view is that reducing emissions is a good thing in and of itself ? reducing waste, reducing pollution, and reducing dependence on non-renewable resources are good things from so many perspectives. Further, I believe that the technological solutions that will help us to do this are within reach (and some are already with us) and would ultimately be a boon to the economy, not a drag on it.
Waste, pollution, and reliance on declining resources are not long-term economic advantages ? quite the opposite.
If Scott stubbornly contests it is crap, the theory most likely will hold valid. If Scott contests it is valid, it is most likely crap.
For example, in Scott's World ? , if the meteorologists are unable to accurately predict the weather 72 hours from now, then geologists, chemists and oceanographers who study ocean currents and their atmospheric effects, must not have any ability to accurately forecast general weather trends either. Quite obviously this is crap, and therefore, the original idea posited here, valid to some degree.
The only scenario where this litmus test may prove inadequate, is when the subject-matter at hand has no ramifications direct or indirect for the Republican party or its kindred governments, OR, if Sammi Jo finds a theory (usually a conspiracy theory) to be valid, while Scott contests it is crap. A conondrum to be sure....
In these cases one must find other litmus tests.
Side Note: no one has passed off the study as fact, but merely asked whethere they think it has merit. But surely this is folly since none of us have read a word about global pollution or abnormal warming / cooling trends over the last 20 years. We're all clueless apparently.
So I look into it for myself and I find errors and inconsistencies and can't find the report to read for myself that this "news" article is based on.
And I'm the bad guy for questioning faulty reporting?