The Ice Age Cometh?

WeatherBug Meteorologist, ^ | 8AM EDT, September 26, 2003 | By Justin Consor

[Forgiven_Sinner]

Do abrupt climate shifts occur as part of a natural cycle? Despite growing evidence that humans affect climate via urbanization and greenhouse gas emissions, the natural climate cycle may have the final say.

Research from Dr. Stefan Rahmstorf at Germany`s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research suggests that the earth`s climate is characterized by an extraordinarily regular cycle of about 1470 years.

He found that the five most recent cycles had a standard deviation of only 32 years.

Rahmstorf examined ice cores from Greenland. Going back before the 20th century, when weather stations were nonexistent or widely dispersed, ice cores and tree rings provide the most objective and reliable climate record.

Rahmstorf also found that the most recent cold period of the cycle was most likely the "Little Ice Age" of the 16th to 18th Centuries.

These findings suggest that the warming of the past century or so is probably nothing more than the next phase of this repeating pattern of cyclical warming and cooling.

Recent observations and forecast models suggest that the current warming may be the engine to spur rapid global cooling.

Ocean scientists have found that some of the largest rivers in the world are dumping 7% less fresh water into the Arctic Ocean than they did in the 1930s.

According to scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, decreased fresh water flow has the potential to shut down a global water flow pattern called the thermohaline circulation.

In its current state, the thermohaline circulation brings cold, deep, salty water south from the poles, while warm surface water moves from the tropics toward the poles. If the circulation were to shut off, abrupt cooling would likely spread through much of the northern Hemisphere, including Europe and the U.S.

This scenario has caused temperatures to plummet an average of 5 to 10 degrees in 20 years in the past. 11,000 years ago, such global cooling occurred and glaciers were seen in much of the northern U.S.

Photo Credit: NOAA Photo Library. The Ross Ice Shelf looms over the Bay of Whales. It was here that Roald Amundsen staged the first successful assault on the South Pole.

What do you think of this story?

[PatrioticAmerican]

Man, reading that made me dizzy.

[Bon mots]

About a year ago I added the WeatherBug software, and I was plagued by more popups than I could handle. After uninstalling it they went away. Could have been a coincidence I suppose, but I am not anxious to retest.

Can get a popup killer... or if you think they put in spyware, check out this free application:
SpyBot Search & Destroy
I recommend scanning your computer for spyware. You'll be surprised at what you'll find!

[Truth666]

There's no proof for an ice age since the Earth is populated with the species that shared or still share the planet with homo sapiens.
The opposite is true - ice age impossible during that period.

[ancient_geezer]

There's no proof for an ice age since the Earth is populated with the species that shared or still share the planet with homo sapiens.

That is hardly proof of no ice age, as we are still within a significant iceage right now in geological terms. Those creatures alive today are the survivors of the prior colder periods in that major iceage.

The earth has been both much colder and much warmer than it is today. But the 13.8^oC average surface temperature of the earth today, places us in the interesting situtation of looking for at a warming snap expecting it to snow some more soon.

 

Global Temperature and Atmospheric CO2 over Geologic Time 

Late Carboniferous to Early Permian time (315 mya -- 270 mya) is the only time period in the last 600 million years when both atmospheric CO2 and temperatures were as low as they are today (Quaternary Period ).

Temperature after C.R. Scotese
CO2 after R.A. Berner, 1994

•     There has historically been much more CO2 in our atmosphere than exists today. For example, during the Jurassic Period (200 mya), average CO2 concentrations were about 900 ppm or about 2.5 times higher than today. The highest concentrations of CO2 during all of the Paleozoic Era occurred during the Ordovician Period, exceeding 6000 ppm -- more than 16 times higher than today.

•     The Carboniferous Period and the Ordovician Period were the only geological periods during the Paleozoic Era when global temperatures were as low as they are today.
  
  To the consternation of global warming proponents, the Late Ordovician Period was also an Ice Age, with CO2 concentrations nearly 15 times higher than today-- 5500 ppm. According to greenhouse theory, Earth should have been exceedingly hot. Instead, global temperatures were no warmer than today. Clearly, other factors besides atmospheric carbon influence earth temperatures and global warming.

 

---

 

The opposite is true - ice age impossible during that period.

LOL, you may believe or assert anything you wish. YNeither your belief nor your mere assertion makes for truth.

Figure 1-5 Climate for the last 420 kyr, from Vostok ice

[TigersEye]

I'd settle for one on the Mason-Dixon line.

LOL Which side are you gonna be on? Me? I'd like to be in Colorado and hear that all the bridges on Ole Miss had washed away.

[Sam Cree]

bump

[RightWhale]

When is it due?

It is underway now according to a recent Art Bell guest. Transition to Ice Age conditions will take 3 years. Ice will be a mile thick in Detroit, but below the Mason-Dixon line there will be no change. Got a spare room?

[Sam Cree]

I suppose it merits discussion because those of us who are not on the Left are likely to get blamed for it.

[Kenny Bunk]

50 years from now, half of the people in Canada will begin migrating south.

They had better not try it. The Mexicans will be running a very tight northern border control operation, by then. Damned snowbacks!

[Light Speed]

50 years from now, half of the people in Canada will begin migrating south

Nope...you got killer Bee's : )

[Elliott Jackalope]

There you go again, posting all of those darn facts that muck up the trendy theories so near and dear to our mass media. You big troublemaker. I just hope you are happy.

Now, to get with the current program, repeat after me: "Global warming is real, CO2 makes the planet hotter, we're all gonna die when the ice caps melt, like they did in 'Waterworld'". Got that?

I mean, really, who are we supposed to believe? A bunch of boring old charts, or a splashy movie starring Kevin Costner? I rest my case!

[boris]

"I've seen textbooks (recently) that show temperature patterns over time. I'm pretty sure they were based on ice core and/or tree ring readings but don't remember exactly. Repeatedly, temps have risen gradually and then dropped off dramatically and quickly. It looked to me as though we are very near the high temperature peak now and that, historically speaking, we are more likely to wake up to another ice age than to one of the theorized doom-and-gloom warming scenarios. I guess, though, that one if those scenarios is an ice age. They've thrown so many ideas out there that one of them has to be right eventually."

The "Solar Constant" is not a constant at all. It is known to be slowly increasing. Presently it is about 1379 watts/m² at one A.U. from the Sun. From 1/3 to 2/3 of the claimed "warming" is due to the slow increase of the Solar Constant.

Interestingly, the temperature of Neptune's moon, Triton, has increased ~10 degrees in the last decade...and that's about 1.7 billion miles outward from here.

--Boris

[freesia2]

Thanks, Boris.

[reg45]

50 years from now, half of the people in Canada will begin migrating south.

That's all we need! The McKenzie family (Roger and Bruce) moving south, aak!

[reg45]

Glaciers Moving South From Canada

Women and Minorities Hardest Hit

Headline: NYT - 2010

[reg45]

I recommend scanning your computer for spyware.

Yesterday, I scanned my computer and found 25 different spyware programs which I quarantined.

One was CDilla (its packaged with Turbo Tax). CDilla disables your CD writer so that it cannot be used to copy ANY CD's. After quarantining CDilla, my CD writer worked again. Unfortunately, I will have to un-quarantine CDilla in order to ues Turbo Tax next year.

[reg45]

Oops! Unfortunately, I will have to un-quarantine CDilla in order to ues use Turbo Tax next year.

[Bon mots]

"SpyBot Search & Destroy" found it?? You used the link I posted??

That little piece of freeware is great!

[Truth666]

And you can believe whatever graphics you want to be true. But I still believe facts and nothing but facts.
So please explain me : how do you explain for instance that coral reefs survived the osclillations of your graphic (for instance 10° C in a short time ?
P.S. - I have to use "short time" because this kind of proof somehow always seems to avoid details as much as the devil avoids the cross ...

[ancient_geezer]

Believer whatever you want to. It is sufficient Coral survived. The fact speaks for itself.