Posted on 12/01/2005 4:33:26 PM PST by goldstategop
RUSH: This is just getting better. This could be summed up by saying that global warming is causing global warming cooling, which may lead to a mini-ice age. This is from NewScientist.com and the UK Guardian also has a version of this story. If this comes to pass, Great Britain is in big trouble. Europe is going to be hardest hit. "The ocean current, the Gulf Stream that gives Western Europe its relatively balmy climate is stuttering, raising fears that it might fail entirely and plunge the continent into a mini-ice age. The dramatic finding comes from a study of ocean circulation in the north Atlantic which found a 30% reduction in the warm currents that carry water north from the Gulf Stream. The slowdown which has long been predicted as a possible consequence of global warming, will give renewed urgency to intergovernmental talks in Montreal this week on a successor to the Kyoto protocol. Harry Bryden at the Southampton Oceanography Center in the UK, whose group carried out the analysis, said that he's not sure yet if the change is temporary or if it signals a long-term trend. 'We don't want to say the circulation will shut down, but we are nervous about our findings. They have come as quite a surprise.'"
Here's how all this is supposed work: "The North Atlantic is dominated by the Gulf Stream – currents that bring warm water north from the tropics. At around 40° north – the latitude of Portugal and New York – the current divides. Some water heads southwards in a surface current known as the subtropical gyre, while the rest continues north, leading to warming winds that raise European temperatures by 5°C to 10°C. But when Bryden’s team measured north-south heat flow last year, using a set of instruments strung across the Atlantic from the Canary Islands to the Bahamas, they found that the division of the waters appeared to have changed since previous surveys in 1957, 1981 and 1992. From the amount of water in the subtropical gyre and the flow southwards at depth, they calculate that the quantity of warm water flowing north had fallen by around 30%." Now, you might be asking yourself, "Okay, how is global warming causing this cooling?" Well, the first thing you have to understand is that global warming explains everything! Global warming explains why Bush sent troops to Iraq. Global warming explains what happened to New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. Global warming is said to be the reason for everything. Global warming is a political issue.
Global warming is a political issue, and as such, it cannot die; it will not die. It is an issue that leftists around world are carrying in their hip pockets and trumpeting from their mouths as a means of doing their best to destroy or weaken capitalist industrial societies. Well, the theory on this, as I understand it -- now, I am not a scientist. But I'll tell you, as they explain this, what happens is this warm water from the Gulf Stream flows north, and obviously it cools, and as it cools, as it gets north, it sinks, and it interacts with another current in the deep that brings it back down toward the equator and back to the Gulf Stream, and that's like the conveyor belt. So if that water stops sinking, then it stops being conveyed back and then stops being returned on the south-to-north part of the conveyor belt. Now, you say, "Wait a minute, Rush. Global warming says we're already losing a bunch of glaciers up there, the glaciers are melting, and because the glaciers are melting that ought to be putting a whole lot of cool water in the area where it's not staying cool enough." Well, the explanation for this is that the melting water from the ice caps is freshwater; it is not saline, and what is happening is that the freshwater is diluting the saline content of the Atlantic in the northern regions here of that conveyor belt where the Gulf Stream drops to the cooler section, comes back, ends up flowing north again as warm water. And as the saline content of the north Atlantic is diluted, the Gulf Stream warm water that cools doesn't sink as deep because there's a difference in weight and mass between saline and freshwater.
The saline content is diluted, and that's what they're worried about. They're worried, but, now, interestingly, this is the first I've heard of this although they say they've been predicting it for all these years. But here you have global warming, which is causing the melting of the ice caps, which is going to lead to an ice age. Now, the bottom line is a lot of people have been predicting this. As recently as 1975, Newsweek had a cover, The Coming Ice Age and then in the eighties, "Nope, we're going to make this global warming because it's never 30 degrees in June, but it can be 65 in January, and so global warming will be much more believable to people. You tell people we're having an ice age, and it's 105 degrees when it's supposed to be 105 degrees, nobody is gonna believe it. But if we tell them global warming is happening, and the sun is out in New York, or Michigan, or wherever, and it happens to be 65 or 70 a couple of days in January, as it always is, then we'll be able to sell that." So this whole concept of global warming has been sold since the eighties, and it's been sold as, "Well, you know, we can't really predict it; we can't guarantee it, but we don't have time to pretend otherwise! We don't have time to wait because if we wait and it turns out to be true we're doomed, our goose is cooked." Well, the Kyoto protocol came along. We didn't sign onto that. There hasn't really been a whole lot of, at least as far as the wackos are concerned, concerted, devoted effort to deal with global warming.
So now they say that the Gulf Stream is down by 30%, and the result of this, by the way, if this happens, is that in the next ten to 12 years, Europe's average temperature will decline one degree Celsius, one degree. That is not a mini-ice age. One degree Celsius is not a mini-ice age. But regardless, let's say they're right about this. Let's say that all this happens to be true. Here we have global warming, which I guess the predominant factor here would be the ice caps melting, because that's what's supposedly is getting in the way of everything. These glaciers and ice caps are melting and they're weakening the saline content in seawater. Now, I have another question -- and look, I'm not a scientist, so I'm not afraid to ask what some of you scientists might think are dumb questions, but if an iceberg at the North Pole is freshwater, I want to know where it was made and how it got there. How can an iceberg in ocean water be freshwater? I understand how it can rain freshwater over the ocean because the whole evaporation process and condensation process actually distills it, but I don't understand how an iceberg can be freshwater. But it must because they're saying so. So the icebergs melt and that weakens the saline, that causes the Gulf Stream flow to be interrupted and perhaps stopped, and the result is everybody's going to freeze their tushes, as a result of global warming. So they've got a hard PR sell here because now they're saying that the worst outcome of all this would be a mini-ice age as a result of global warming. I just wanted to keep you up to speed on where they are headed with all this. Meanwhile, NOAH has made it plain (National Oceanic Atmospheric Association -- it's a government agency, hurricane people) there's no evidence whatsoever global warming has anything to do with any increasing hurricane activity or intensity.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Folks, don't get confused. I've not done a 180 and starting to buy this. I believe what may be happening could be happening, this conveyor belt business with the Gulf Stream and being interrupted. We've had ice ages on this planet, in case you don't know that, and we've had ice ages long before man was ever industrial, before we started burning all these fossil fuels and so forth. I have not abandoned my belief that whatever is going on is not caused by us. I do not believe that prosperity, technological advancement, and western democracies and civilizations are causing all these weather fluctuations. I think the earth's climate is more complicated than we can possibly understand, but certainly we cannot control it. We cannot make it rain when we want to, we cannot stop it from raining, we can't do anything where the weather is concerned other than go somewhere else. Now, if this stuff is happening out there, and if these icebergs are melting, it's happened before. It's happened long ago, and all these systems are cycles and they repeat themselves.
We've had ice ages. If you're in France, don't worry about it. You can burn cars! You've got all kinds of cars in France you can burn to stay warm. Another upside: summertime, not going to be nearly as hot. All these thousands of deaths that happen in Europe in the summertime because of no air-conditioning. You may not need air-conditioning if we get this mini-ice age. There's an upside to all of this. But the idea that we are causing this, do not fear. I have not wavered, not changed from any of that. I just think these wacko environmentalists take these naturally occurring climatic cycles and try to blame primarily America and other civilized industrialized nations for all this, and it's purely political. But these things are going to happen, and if this is happening, there's nothing we can do to stop it. Snerdley says, "Well, head up there and just dump a bunch of salt." There's nothing we can do to stop this if it's happening and there's nothing we've done to cause it, but it is an interesting fact. Now, if you start reading the right places you can find a lot of scientists who actually do believe that we are nearing the end of a solar warming cycle, and that could be a factor here in whatever new sense of global cooling is now being forecast by people.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie.Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
Women and minorities to be hardest hit.
;-)
This was not new news. It may have escaped the attention of the leftwing elites (and Rush Limbaugh as well), but it's not recent stuff.
What is surprising is that the information presently available says that it may happen a little sooner than anyone thought ~ like this year, or next, and Europe might go back into the freezer ~ which is, in fact, a NORMAL CONDITION.
We are still in an Ice Age ~ a particularly nasty one ~ and the interglacials are of relatively short duration. A current theory is that the greenhouse gases we've produced through development of agriculture have been staving off the start of the next one. The worry here is that this reglaciation of Europe might trigger a headlong plunge of the whole planet out of its present Interglacial irrespective of greenhouse gas levels.
Do you know what this is going to do to real estate prices in the Americas and Africa? There are nearly 400,000,000 people who presently live in the affected area. They'll be coming to a neighborhood near you!
Oh, yes, they are armed with nukes and will be particularly dangerous. So be sweet.
Global Warming or Global Ice age. You can't have it both ways.
What I expecially liked about the Discover Channel program was the statement of fact that in the 1600 to late 1800's we had one of the coldest earth temperatures on record.
But wait.....isn't the basis for all the global warming arguments that we know there is global warming, because things are hotter now than they were in the late 1800's prior to the industrial revolution....... Can't have it both ways.
I wonder if Al Gore will issue a retraction on his predictions... Hah....
Well, one point Rush doesn't pick up is that sea ice is mostly fresh water, with only a little trapped salt. As one article explains, "When sea ice forms, some of the salt in the ocean water is trapped in small pockets between the ice crystals; however, most of it is "ejected" into the ocean below."
So when sea ice melts, it melts as fresh water, or nearly so.
Otherwise, I would say that sure, there are likely big changes afoot in the ocean and currents shifting and changing, but it has nothing much to do with human effluents into the atmosphere. It stands to reason that an ocean current would fluctuate naturally and cause weather changes on the adjacent lands.
This is going to kill the clothing and fashion industry. Nobody will know whether to buy summer or winter clothing.
And let's not forget that global warming has been sped up by the demise of Communism. You see, when all of the Eastern European countries were belching out all the black soot into the environment that they could, it was a good thing. More particulates in the air, the more warming rays of the sun were blocked from the earth's surface. Then the capitalists cleaned things up, putting LESS pollution into the air, so now MORE of the sun gets through and INCREASES global warming. So, the rationale of the environmentalist is - capitalist pollution is BAD! - communist pollution is GOOD!
Maybe I'll just take a hot bath instead and then go watch somebody beat up Alan Colmes again. Yeah. That's it.
Global warming is causing/will cause a mini-ice age in Europe.
The reason for this is that glaciers and ice-caps have been melting, and the salinity of the ocean is being changed. This affects the warm Gulf Stream that is responsible for the warmer than otherwise climate in Europe.
So, if Europe gets colder, the glaciers and ice-caps in the northern portion of the globe will not melt as fast, and the Gulf stream should be back to its normal strength and volume again.
What are these liberals complaining about? This system has a feed-back loop to fix things right.
Its OK big-guy....the change in the direction of the earh's magnetic field will correct it.
Named after J F'n "flip-flop" Kerry (but AlBore invented the internet)
The big thing about this issue is that it IS IN NO WAY caused by humans. This shifting of the jet-stream has been seen before in history. In the Middle ages a mini ice age hit Europe causing diseases to thrive, ultimately leading to the great plague which wiped out Europe. But wait thats not possible because there were no cars back then to cause global warming. Oops my fault.
It is a good thing, then, that Frenchmen are learning how to build a good fire.
Flip-flops or Uggs? I am so confused.
Don't think they are talking about the jet stream. Although there is a jet stream effect: like when it crosses over Siberia mid-winter and carries that 80 below air into Canada and drops it on Chicago.
Sure you can! If the heat from the Gulfstream doesn't go to Yurp, then it WILL go somewhere else. It'll be hot as hell in Africa. (Wait a minute....(scratches head)....isn't there a desert there already? Yup.
But, wait another minute. If that warm water winds up on the North African coast, will it be raining in the Sahara?
Hope everyone has read Michael Crichton's book on this subject. It is a must read!
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