It alludes to global warming as being bad but admits that major climate changes have occurred naturally over 110,000 year. Far longer than man has been tampering with the environment. I find the following article interesting for many reasons.
(back)It alludes to global warming as being bad but admits that major climate changes have occurred naturally over 110,000 year. Far longer than man has been tampering with the environment.
It shows that there is no consensus amongst the scientific community of what the dangers of global warming are.
And just think global warming may be the cause of the next Ice Age.
Europe may be in for 'deep freeze'
SCIENCE: A study says 'greenhouse gases' are disrupting currents that affect the weather.
By PAUL RECER
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Currents flowing like rivers from pole to pole and ocean to ocean help keep the Earth's weather in a steady state, but the buildup of "greenhouse gases" in the atmosphere is threatening this circulation and could dump Europe into a deep freeze, a researcher says.
The dependable pattern of ocean circulation is a key factor in controlling the Earth's weather and keeping it predictable, said Wallace S. Broecker of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in Palisades, N.Y.
But this has only been true for the past 8,000 years. Before that ocean currents altered about every 1,000 years and scrambled the Earth's climate, Broecker says in a study to be published on today in the Journal Science.
"We live in a climate system that can jump abruptly from one state to another," said Broecker. By dumping into the atmosphere huge amounts of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels, "we are conducting an experiment that could have devastating effects," he added
"We're Playing with an angry beast - a climate system that has been shown to be very sensitive," explained Broecker
The study findings come as representatives from more than 140 nations prepare to gather in Kyoto, Japan, next week in hopes of forging an agreement binding industrial nations to specific reductions of greenhouse gases, - especially carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels.
Broecker said studies of ice cores that date back 110,000 years show that about once a millennium the Earth's climate abruptly changes and within 10 to 20 years can cause such things as increased glaciers, halting of rainfall or crippling declines in temperature.
Ocean currents are controlled by the temperature and salt content of the water, according to the researcher. Cold, salty water is heavy and drops to the ocean bottom, while warm, fresh water rises.
This creates what Broecker calls a "conveyor" current that spans the globe. Cold, salty water in the North Atlantic sinks, working like a plunger to drive an ocean current from near North America to Europe. Warm Surface waters borne by this current help to keep Europe's climate mild.
Without the current, said Broecker, "Europe would be, a deep freeze" with; average winter temperatures dropped by 20 degrees Fahrenheit or more. The climate of Dublin or London would be like that of Spitbergen, Norway which is 600 miles north of the Arctic Circle, he said.
J.D. Mahlman, noted climate scientist at Princeton University, called Broecker's theory "interesting speculation," but said there is no immediate evidence to show that the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could disrupt the ocean currents.