Slowdown In Ocean Currents May Bring Ice Age To Britain

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 4-16-2004 | Roger Highfield

[blam]

Slowdown in ocean currents may bring ice age to Britain

By Roger Highfield Science Editor
(Filed: 16/04/2004)

A crucial "cog" in the circulation of the North Atlantic is slowing down, which could signal a major upheaval in the climate of Britain, according to a study published today.

The report in Science comes as Hollywood prepares to release a film on the same theme, The Day After Tomorrow, in which snowstorms batter New Delhi and tornadoes strike Los Angeles after global warming disrupts ocean circulation patterns.

It seems logical that a gradual build-up of greenhouse gases will lead to an equally gradual change in climate. But this has been overturned by evidence found in ice and sediments which reveal that the global climate can lurch from warm to cold in a few decades when ocean circulation patterns change.

Water, even when moving sluggishly, carries significant heat and the tightly-linked Arctic and North Atlantic regions play a key role in the delicately balanced global ocean circulation system that warms the UK with the Gulf Stream. Disrupt it, and the UK could suffer drastic and unpredictable changes in temperature and rainfall, even an ice age, within a timescale ranging from a decade to a century.

Today in Science, a team reports that satellite measurements of sea surface height show there has been a slowdown in the anticlockwise circulation of surface water just below the Arctic Circle in the North Atlantic over the past decade.

Whether this slowdown is a consequence of basic global warming or part of a mid-term climate cycle it is too early to know, said Prof Peter Rhines of the University of Washington, Seattle.

Nor is it clear whether the slowdown will mean major changes in Atlantic circulation.

The 1990s was one of the most active periods of climate change during the past century in northern latitudes.

"The question is, how much 're-plumbing' of the ocean circulation is required to push the coupled atmosphere-ocean system over a threshold?" said Prof Rhines.

[johniegrad]

Absolutely no doubt about it. Global warming from greenhouse gases resulting from America's use of fossil fuels will result in another ice age. Brilliant.

[x1stcav]

Damnit! We're all going to die! Again!

[Dudoight]

Wont Global Warming help in this case? Laugh!

[Ditter]

Any possibility that the US Gulf Coast will get any of that ice age action? (she asked hopefully) ;9]

[wagglebee]

When are these nutcases gonna get a clue? Its not global warming or global cooling, its just the f'ing weather.

[johniegrad]

Yes. I'm planning on a snowmobile trip from Pensacola to New Orleans next year.

[Dallas59]

This is the fault of Bush!

[xJones]

Back in the late 1800's, the Thames River froze and people held ice-skating parties and fairs on it. And that was before Al Gore, the Industrial Age, cars, and all that. Nature will do what it wants to do, regardless of humanity.

[Ditter]

Yea!

[ml/nj]

Slowdown in ocean currents may bring ice age to Britain

But it's not likely.

ML/NJ

[xJones]

Pardon, I meant in the 18th century, i.e. 1700s.

[TheLion]

Will this ice age occur before or after the Greenland ice sheet melts?

[kittymyrib]

No,no,no...you can't get fat tax-payer-funded grants to study these fanciful theories and justify your paycheck at some university or government agency if this is just the same cycle of weather that has been going on since God made the earth. And you have to write scary scenarios so that the gullible taxpayers won't question why you are making a lot more money in your worthless pursuit than they are at their legitimate jobs.

[blam]

"Any possibility that the US Gulf Coast will get any of that ice age action? "

Don't think so, just a lot of yankees moving south because the northern US will get colder too.

[wagglebee]

Yeah I wish somebody would pay me a couple hundred grand a year to just to say every dumb thing that pops into my head.

[blam]

"Back in the late 1800's, the Thames River froze and people held ice-skating parties and fairs on it. And that was before Al Gore, the Industrial Age, cars, and all that. Nature will do what it wants to do, regardless of humanity."

That was caused by the volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora.

The Year Without Summer

[Ditter]

That is a scarey thought, unless of course they are freepers. But seriously, the Gulf Stream comes out of the Atlantic doesn't it? Wouldn't it be nice to be a little cooler here?

[Maceman]

The 1990s was one of the most active periods of climate change during the past century in northern latitudes.

Obviously the timing suggests that the phenomenon is due to all the hot air blown by the Clintons and their Democratic enablers.

[blam]

Here's an infared (temperature) satellite image of the Gulf Stream.