A Chilling Possibility

[Professur]

Global warming could plunge North America and Western Europe into a deep freeze, possibly within only a few decades.

That's the paradoxical scenario gaining credibility among many climate scientists. The thawing of sea ice covering the Arctic could disturb or even halt large currents in the Atlantic Ocean. Without the vast heat that these ocean currents deliver--comparable to the power generation of a million nuclear power plants--Europe's average temperature would likely drop 5 to 10°C (9 to 18°F), and parts of eastern North America would be chilled somewhat less. Such a dip in temperature would be similar to global average temperatures toward the end of the last ice age roughly 20,000 years ago.

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Global warming my ass.

 

[PT]

Um, Brrr....?

 

[MrBishop]

source

Global warming my ass.

Isn't that they've been warning about for a while now? The planet gets warmer because of "Global warming"...then the icecaps start melting, increasing the level of water, causing floods, massive changes in weather-patterns (See 'el Nino'), and then nature overcompensates and sends us into a deep freeze.

The deep freeze will reverse the melting of the icecaps, slow the flooding and eventually swing around the other way...back to global warming again

Ain't man's feeble attempts to regulate nature or even predict it grand?

 

[chcr]

Actually, that effect is fairly well understood by climatologists. I've been reading about it for years. Interesting stuff, huh?

 

[MrBishop]

Actually, that effect is fairly well understood by climatologists. I've been reading about it for years. Interesting stuff, huh?

I'm more into Geomorphology myself...but I'd heard of the effect before as well. The thing is...most peeps havn't and they'll start freaking out and demanding that polution standards be strenghtened etc...and there'll go my dream to own a Suburban

 

[paul_valaru]

so, if global warming happens, we get evern COLDER weather

bummer


but maybe it's cyclical, and we aren't really having an affect on anything, this is supposed to happen.

 

[Professur]

Actually, Bish, the last known time this happened, it was a Montreal event. There was a huge ice damn just up the St-laughable holding back the greatlakes (greatlake at the time, it was all one big lake). When it finally broke, after everything else had melted already, the flood of freshwater into the St-L gulf put paid to that Great Conveyor of theirs. James Burke did a great rendition of it in "After the Warming". I've got it on tape somewheres.

 

[Kawaii]

I had an assignment about this a while ago... The gulf stream is going to shut down if the cold water pushing it gets much warmer. I don't want it to get colder over here! Waiii!

 

[BeardofPants]

but maybe it's cyclical, and we aren't really having an affect on anything, this is supposed to happen.

I suspect that we're just exacerbating an already occuring natural event.


... that's exacerbating, Paul, not masterbating. Get yer mind out of the gutter!

 

[chcr]

huh? what?

 

[pc_builder]

but maybe it's cyclical, and we aren't really having an affect on anything, this is supposed to happen.

Exactly. It's a natural state of the planet. It warms up and freezes all the time. Mankind just hasn't been recording history long enough to realize this.

 

[Gato_Solo]

From what I understand, it's a 10,000 year cycle of the Earth's orbit around the sun. Right now, we're pretty close, but we're moving back out again. Can't remember where I saw that, though...