Topic: OK. where's all this Global Warming gone ?

[vegmandan]

I see that the Global Warming debate has cooled off a bit lately especially regarding this country.

The coldest Summer for ages followed by a pretty frigid Winter so far ,and some pretty cold stuff to come this week apparently.

Russia and Germany suffering their coldest temperatures for a generation

So what's happened.?

I thought we were all supposed to be going to be able to grow tropical plants during Winter due to the seismic shift in world temperatures.

Yeah Right !   ???

[ceres]

So what's happened.?

Australia's got everyone's share of the heat at the moment!

[Pesky Wabbit]

Credit Crunch.


The Credit Crunch has seen a dramatic reduction in the sales organic food and the interest in protecting the environmment.

[les65]

the boffins dont call it global warming now (probably because they are wrong) its now called climate change (to cover every angle)
if its freezing its due to climate change
if its hot as hell its due to climate change
the reasons well there are many but heres one
http://www.divulgence.net/
more here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles

[Ninnyscrops.]

This cold long winter reminds me of my childhood...........
The long hot summers remind me of my childhood..........

Climate change  ???

[triffid]

...  I thought we were all supposed to be going to be able to grow tropical plants during Winter due to the seismic shift in world temperatures. ...

Yep, I used to have cheerful thoughts about vineyards.  ;D


Did you ever see a fairly silly sci-fi/disaster movie called The Day After Tomorrow? The world freezing over because global warming had caused the shut-down of the North Atlantic Drift? (essentially the central-heating system for the northern hemisphere)
Although its effects would take decades to materialise (rather than happening overnight as it did in the film) the idea is a real - and scarily credible - scientific theory.
 

Basically, the reason we have the (relatively) mild climate that we do in the UK is largely thanks to the warming effect of the Gulf Stream current. That's a little branch of the much bigger North Atlantic Drift. And this global ocean current is driven by heat, cold, and levels of salt in the sea. It's like a river, running within the oceans.

Anyway, by the time the North Atlantic Drift reaches the freezing Arctic north of Greenland and Norway, evaporation has made the shallower water saltier than the deeper water.
That added salt means that the water is denser, so it sinks (first having cooled in the Arctic temperatures).
Down in the depths, it then slowly flows back south, travelling between Greenland and Scotland, in a stream known as the North Atlantic Deep Water.
Eventually (some scientists think a thousand years later) it reaches the point where it started, in the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans, where it picks up warmth, which causes it to rise, and the whole cycle starts again.
Trouble is, the rapidly melting glaciers across the Arctic may be disturbing the saltiness of the water near the surface when the North Atlantic Drift gets to its northern turning point. And if too much fresh water from those melting glaciers mixes with it, then eventually the fresh water will dilute the saltiness: it just won't become dense enough to sink.

If that happens, then we're in real trouble, because the whole of this submarine river will grind to a halt. No central heating for Europe or Scandinavia; no cooling system for the southern hemisphere. Temperature drops of 5-10C are apparently what we could expect.

Like everything connected with oceanography, most of this is really hard to prove. (The melting glaciers are fact, however). We know deplorably little about how the big ocean motors are driven, and measurements of sea temperatures are relatively recent (compared to land records for England dating back to the 1700s, for example).
But it is one of the 'climate change' theories that gives knowledgeable oceanographers sleepless nights... which is enough to worry me.

Apologies for the serious answer. I'll go roll in the snow now to cool my overheated brain.  ;D

[Gobby]

Actually warming wont occur for another 8 years, we had 10 years of el nino (the boy), now we have the opposite effect for 10 years with la nina (the girll) which has the opposite effect on the ocean currents, so another 8 years of crummy cold weather before it starts heating up again.

[OllieC]

Global warming results in more chaotic & extreme weather patterns and less consistency... Seems to me that's exactly what we have! This is the proof!

[Kea]

Ollie is correct. It's been called climate change right from the beginning. You can put your head in the sand but it won't change anything it's really too late now.

[mat]

I am afraid I don't agree with this being caused by climate change!!!  It is normal to get weather like this in the winter.  The earth goes in cycles as Gobby said.  its just more in the news when the snow comes to the SE...  Snow is normal weather, this is certainly (so far) not extreme.  Now if we got 2 foot of snow across the country and it lasted for weeks, then that would be extreme, but we had more snow than this every winter when I was a child...

[tonybloke]

Well put Triffid!
Apparentley the atlantic conveyor actually stopped for a couple of days last year!  :o :o
The last time we had reliable distinct seasons was in the 70's. trouble is, the planet don't follow the calendar as strictly as we do!! ;)

[les65]

i agree with mat this is not extreme, its normal.
im not a believer in  the global warming/climate change scaremongery.
although i do have a very low footprint and campaign against companies who create vast amounts of waste (supermarkets airports etc) and campaign against the carbon offsetting scam
i do this because i believe we ARE poisoning the planet and our children not because we get snow in winter

[Robert_Brenchley]

Climate change is a global phenomenon not a local one; local weather is as variable as ever if not more so, especially here. We're on the boundary between two air masses, plus we're on the edge of a large continent, so our weather always has been all over the place. But despite the local conditions, last year was the tenth warmest ever recorded overall. It would be nice if we could stick our heads up our bums and wait for climate change to vanish like a ghost at thingy-crow, but it won't happen that easily unfortunately.

Remember how the tobacco companies were spending fortunes back in the Seventies, trying to convince everyone that smoking didn't cause cancer? We've just had a period when Bush and the oil companies were doing the same over climate change. Do you really think they're reliable witnesses?

[Suzanne]

Sea levels are still rising due to reduction in polar ice......  So if you have an ambition to holiday in the Maldives or to see Polar Bears in the wild apparently we need to do so soon as they may not be around much longer.
 

[les65]

Sea levels are still rising due to reduction in polar ice......  So if you have an ambition to holiday in the Maldives or to see Polar Bears in the wild apparently we need to do so soon as they may not be around much longer.
 

;D

would this not contribute to them going sooner

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the sea level has risen 6 to 8 inches (15 to 20 cm) in the last 100 years This higher temperature may be causing some floating icebergs to melt, but this will not make the oceans rise.

[Gobby]

OK simple physics, as objects warm they expand, when ice melts it follows the same rules, so even an iceberg would increase in volume when it melts, and it's not just icebergs melting it's also glacias that have not melted in 1000's of years.  Though we have cycles in tempurature around the world and while we are in La Nina we should experience lower tempurature's by 2-3oC last year we had no warming at all, this disguises the warming effect, but when Nino starts up again we can expect much higher tempuratures then we had for the last 10 years of it.

Though i agree that climate change (read global warming) is happening, there is simply nothing that could ever be done to stop it at this stage as no one could stop developing countries from using fosile fules etc, we simply dont have the right to say they cant develop as far as say the UK or US as we'd be laughed out of the room.

(good example of this would be India or Pakistan, which in a few years will be become one of the main users of fosile fules, we could never stop them)

Just my opinion and does not reflect the opinion of others on this site.  ::)

[Pesky Wabbit]

...  so even an iceberg would increase in volume when it melts...

 

You really sure about that ?

Ice floats, right ? which means its less dense than water. Ie a larger volume for the same amount liquid.

[OllieC]

I don't think there's any sensible debate about man made climate change... but I would point out that anyone who thinks melting ice caps will result in rising sea levels should brush up on their Archimedes...

[RobinOfTheHood]

Water is at its most dense at 4 degrees centigrade. Ice is less dense than water....












































Oh, and global warming is a con.

[saddad]

In answer to the title....










Australia for it's Holidays...  ;D

As Ceres Said...  :)