Could Global Warming Cause a Mini Ice Age?
Mon, Nov 17, 2008
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Image: wvs
In the early 1900s, near the Berezovka river in Ukraine, frozen Woolly Mammoths were found with half chewed food still in their mouths, and more food undigested in their stomachs. Since then, scientists have been debating and speculating about what terrible environmental scenario could have flash frozen Woolly Mammoths so quickly.
Image: Paul L McCord Jnr
One scenario, put forward in the 1999 book The Coming Global Superstorm, posits that freezing arctic air could be trapped over the north pole by a barrier of much warmer air. If the North Atlantic Current, the water current which supplies warm weather to Northern Europe, were to fail, the barrier of warm air could drop and all the freezing arctic air would flood down in to the Northern Hemisphere, causing a catastrophic temperature drop similar to the one that must have frozen the Berezovka Woolly Mammoths.
If the scenario sounds familiar, it’s because it probably is. The 2004 movie The Day After Tomorrow was based on the same theoretical scenario, and while the movie may be unrealistic, the science behind the theory isn’t.
Image: Wis Doc
There are many climate scientists who believe that it’s quite possible that the North Atlantic Current could shut down, which would cause a mini ice age for Northern Europe and affect the entire global weather system. A shut down of the North Atlantic Current could also be the trigger for something much stranger, the kind of perfect storm that froze Woolly Mammoths all those years ago.
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Lunch Break Eco Links Of The Week | Modern Eco Homes Says:
November 21st, 2008 at 7:03 pm[...] Could global warming cause a mini ice age? There are climate scientists who believe that it’s possible that the North Atlantic Current could shut down, which would cause a mini ice age for Northern Europe and affect the entire global weather system. To read this very interesting article, head on over to Environmental Graffiti. [...]
November 17th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
GLOBAL WARMING? Are you sure? The earth’s temperature may in fact be cooling slightly.
If we are to set serious guidelines to clean up our mess in the air and water, we should base decisions on sound data and not emotional hype.
http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2008/03/argo-4900781s-letter-to-bickering.html
While Al Gore’s efforts to clean up the air and water should be applauded, his argument on Global Warming is rooted in information now appearing to be incorrect…….
It seems we may not really be warming, but cooling.
November 17th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
Strange and interesting. And Scary!
November 17th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
It is pretty scary to think that something like this is actually possible. I’m sure a lot of forces would have to be at work to shut down the north Atlantic current though.
November 18th, 2008 at 12:46 am
Having watched the film ‘Day after Tomorrow’ I was convinced that what was being portrayed could really happen. Its not beyond the realms of science to have a sudden freeze event that takes everything in its path. The issue of the Woolly Mammoths is a perfect example. The speed with which it occurred must have been on the same, or similar, time scale to the one portrayed in the film. It would not have taken a few years to occur because of the very nature of the animals digestive contents. Still fresh. This has to have been a sudden event. Liquid Nitrogen springs readily to mind.
March 1st, 2009 at 1:55 pm
What ever forces that can cause scientists worldwide to declare that the ozone layer is going away and also agree, en masse, that there is global warming is the real thing that we should be worried about. There is enough evidence to indicate that scientists that disagreed with those theories were intimidated by their colleagues into silence. These forces are sinister and fascistic and should be ferreted out as they threaten the essence of good science. Good science should be able to withstand close scrutiny and discourse and embrace criticism as a way to truth and accuracy. It should not be used to manipulate the masses into submission to a specific ideology.