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Big Freeze: Earth Could Plunge into Sudden Ice Age
LiveScience.com ^ | 12/2/09 | Charles Q. Choi

Posted on 12/02/2009 7:29:29 PM PST by NormsRevenge

In the film, "The Day After Tomorrow," the world gets gripped in ice within the span of just a few weeks. Now research now suggests an eerily similar event might indeed have occurred in the past.

Looking ahead to the future, there is no reason why such a freeze shouldn't happen again - and in ironic fashion it could be precipitated if ongoing changes in climate force the Greenland ice sheet to suddenly melt, scientists say.

Starting roughly 12,800 years ago, the Northern Hemisphere was gripped by a chill that lasted some 1,300 years. Known by scientists as the Younger Dryas and nicknamed the "Big Freeze," geological evidence suggests it was brought on when a vast pulse of fresh water - a greater volume than all of North America's Great Lakes combined - poured into the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans.

This abrupt influx, caused when the glacial Lake Agassiz in North America burst its banks, diluted the circulation of warmer water in the North Atlantic, bringing this "conveyer belt" to a halt. Without this warming influence, evidence shows that temperatures across the Northern Hemisphere plummeted.

No time to react

Previous evidence from Greenland ice samples had suggested this abrupt shift in climate happened over the span of a decade or so. Now researchers say it surprisingly may have taken place over the course of a few months, or a year or two at most.

"That the climate system can turn on and off that quickly is extremely important," said earth system scientist Henry Mullins at Syracuse University, who did not take part in this research. "Once the tipping point is reached, there would be essentially no opportunity for humans to react."

(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: catastrophism; dayaftertomorrow; earth; freeze; iceage; junkscience; plunge; science; warmmongers
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.. or it might get hotter.. or not. but it could. maybe.
1 posted on 12/02/2009 7:29:29 PM PST by NormsRevenge
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To: NormsRevenge

Always boiling oceans.....


2 posted on 12/02/2009 7:30:47 PM PST by DCPatriot ("It aint what you don't know that kills you. It's what you know that aint so" Theodore Sturgeon))
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To: NormsRevenge

“Crap they’re on to us! Row the other way! GLOBULL COOLING IS BACK!!!!”


3 posted on 12/02/2009 7:31:05 PM PST by icwhatudo ("laws requiring compulsory abortion could be sustained under the existing Constitution"Obama Adviser)
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To: NormsRevenge
Suckers
4 posted on 12/02/2009 7:31:13 PM PST by GSP.FAN (These are the times that try men's souls.)
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To: NormsRevenge

And monkeys COULD fly out of my butt.


5 posted on 12/02/2009 7:31:30 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: NormsRevenge

Hey Chicken Little ... we ain’t buying it anymore ...


6 posted on 12/02/2009 7:32:35 PM PST by clamper1797 (Would you hold my hand ... If I saw you in heaven ... to my angel in heaven)
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To: NormsRevenge

If Glaciers started to descend down through Canada and into the United States, the Global Warming people still would be saying that the earth is warming and it’s man’s fault. I know these people and to them it’s a religion and has nothing to do with science. They (global warming believers) are truly crazy.


7 posted on 12/02/2009 7:33:27 PM PST by truthguy (Good intentions are not enough!)
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To: NormsRevenge
It is all a load of utter hogwash, how can anyone with two brain cells take any of it seriously? Get a new act, fools.
8 posted on 12/02/2009 7:33:49 PM PST by JasonC
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To: NormsRevenge

9 posted on 12/02/2009 7:35:52 PM PST by MajorThomas (Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.)
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To: NormsRevenge

One time... there was this lake... And it was right outside of town. We used to go fishing and swimming and canoeing in it. And, uh, see, one November, this big flock of ducks came in and landed on that lake. And then the temperature dropped so fast that the lake just froze right there. And they... er... the ducks... they... flew off, you see, and they took that lake right with them. Now they say that lake is somewhere over in Georgia. Can you imagine that?


10 posted on 12/02/2009 7:38:42 PM PST by Jim Robinson (Join the TEA Party Rebellion!! God save this great Republic!!)
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To: GSP.FAN

LOL! Future picture of Miami Beach?


11 posted on 12/02/2009 7:38:50 PM PST by silverleaf (More folks being invited to the White House for Holiday parties than are being sent to Afghanistan)
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To: Jim Robinson

They must heve been Paleo-Mega-Ducks...


12 posted on 12/02/2009 7:39:50 PM PST by rfp1234 (R.I.P. Scotty 7/2007-11/2009.)
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To: NormsRevenge
You forgot the "Climate Hysteria" alert.
13 posted on 12/02/2009 7:40:06 PM PST by Major Matt Mason (Scratch a Green and you get Red.)
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To: NormsRevenge

...is Ted Danson on the loose again?


14 posted on 12/02/2009 7:40:44 PM PST by Doogle (USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
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To: NormsRevenge

We need ice cube credits!


15 posted on 12/02/2009 7:42:12 PM PST by Mark (Don't argue with my posts. I typed while under sniper fire..)
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To: NormsRevenge
Starting roughly 12,800 years ago, the Northern Hemisphere was gripped by a chill that lasted some 1,300 years.

If only they had thought about carbon credits...

16 posted on 12/02/2009 7:43:02 PM PST by scott7278 (Obama, Klaatu barada nikto!)
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To: NormsRevenge

i like the movie “the day after tomarrow” as a quirky little disaster movie. i, unlike these pinheads, do not take it seriously. but then i wasn’t afraid to go swimming after seeing “Jaws”, i did not fear hi-rise hotels after seeing “towering inferno” and was not terrified of flying after seeing “airport 75”. i guess i am just odd like that.


17 posted on 12/02/2009 7:43:44 PM PST by madamemayhem (defeat isn't getting knocked down, it's not getting back up)
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To: NormsRevenge

You know what? I don’t care...The earth is gonna do what the earth is gonna do. I am not going to empower any government anywhere on this earth to either stop it or promote it, because no government can.

The only thing that has come out of this matter for me is that science has thrown its reputation in the trash can. I no longer believe them, nor do I care what they have to say on any subject at all, because they are tainted.


18 posted on 12/02/2009 7:44:15 PM PST by chris37
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To: NormsRevenge

“Once the tipping point is reached, there would be essentially no opportunity for humans to react.”

Oh sure there would, I’d get a baseball bat and slug
everyone with a AGW sticker on their snowed in car.

Really, wouldn’t that be a laugh, I can see the whole
population of Canada and the US migrating through Mexico
to the south, hahahaha.


19 posted on 12/02/2009 7:44:28 PM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: madamemayhem

i totally misspelled tomorrow. i blame global warming.


20 posted on 12/02/2009 7:45:09 PM PST by madamemayhem (defeat isn't getting knocked down, it's not getting back up)
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