Fossilized Midges Provide Clues To Future Climate Change

Alpha Galileo ^ | 7-9-2007 | University Of Liverpool

[blam]

In the South, we call our biting Midges No See'ums

WHAT IS A NO-SEE-UM?

"No-see-ums are tiny biting flies that often live near water. You often see many of themswarming together in a cloud. Keep your mouth shut or you might breathe some in or swallow them! (It won’t hurt you, but it will probably make you cough.) Biting midges are called no-see-ums because they’re so tiny that it is hard to see ‘um. No-see-ums are less than ¼ of an inch long."

The are small enough to go through the mesh of 'normal' screen wire.

[blam]

GGG & Catastrophism Ping

[JHT]

I became less interested when I realised it didn’t say ‘fossilized midgets’.

[RightWhale]

Should we be talking about fossilized midgets or midget heads? Seems somewhat un-pc.

[rfp1234]

[xjcsa]

The future? Seems to me fossils would have more light to shed on the past, but that’s just me.

[MIchaelTArchangel]

So if Wolf Blitzer becomes fossilised will the climate change? Oh, you said midges, not midgets? My mistake.

[relictele]

Wasn’t Midge a character in Archie or Sabrina comics?

[ElkGroveDan]

Were they wrestling?

[fishergirl]

HA!! That’s what I thought it said too, at first.

[colorado tanker]

A few observations.

This seems to support the theory that the Arctic Ocean is the driver behind glacial periods, that when the ice melts and open water becomes available to the atmosphere, precip increases and the next glacial period begins. Shutting down the Gulf Stream would sure facilitate that process.

Archaeologists have documented at least half a dozen attempts by humans or human ancestors to colonize the British Isles. All but the last failed. Britain goes under the ice during glacials. The Brits better hope "global warming" continues.

These guys were naive enough to think Britain's past climate was "stable"??? Hit in the head with a hockey stick? They should sign on to Sunken Civ's ping lists and get a real education.

[Clioman]

This is what happens when small insects are allowed to drive SUVs, cook on out-door barbeques, and fly in private jets. Albert Gore, Jr. is working this issue very hard, and...

Oh. Never mind.

[blam]

Ice Age Ends Smashingly: Did a comet blow up over eastern Canada?

[colorado tanker]

Excellent point, blam. The Gulf Stream is thought by that research to have shut down. I don”t know that these guys in their lake research could corroborate that, because isn”t the time of this comet when glaciers were still covering most of Britain during the Younger Dryas?

[blam]

"Excellent point, blam. The Gulf Stream is thought by that research to have shut down. I don”t know that these guys in their lake research could corroborate that, because isn”t the time of this comet when glaciers were still covering most of Britain during the Younger Dryas?"

Yes. This may have caused the Younger Dryas.(?) The melting of the huge (fresh water) ice lakes in NA could have shut-down the conveyer-belt.(?)

[colorado tanker]

It would sure be interesting if someone could figure out a way to chart the history of the gulf stream, how “turning it on” and “off” may play a role in the glacial cycles.

[blam]

Some discussion here.

[colorado tanker]

This heat transport is often associated with the Gulf Stream in the media and among the public. However, my pedantic side obliges me to point out that the Gulf Stream is a predominantly wind-driven western boundary current that moves up from the Gulf of Mexico along the US coast to Cape Hatteras, at which point it heads off into the central Atlantic (see also this letter by Carl Wunsch). It then turns into the North Atlantic Drift which is really the flow of water responsible for the anomalous northward heat transport in the Atlantic. There is good evidence from past climates, theoretical studies and climate models that large changes, a slowing down or even a complete collapse, in the North Atlantic Drift and the thermohaline circulation can happen.

If I understand this, the Gulf Stream is wind-driven and therefore unlikely to "shut down" but the North Atlantic Drift, which gets the warm water to Europe, can collapse.

[richardtavor]

“Fossilised midges have helped scientists at the University of Liverpool identify two episodes of abrupt climate change that suggest the UK climate is not as stable as previously thought.” This is the funniest thing I’ve seen. Climates are never stable. The world is constantly changing, and to not understand this is to be like alogre...

[SunkenCiv]

"That 70s Show" ping.

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