Slowing currents could cause catastrophic climate flip

[Dover]

Slowing currents could cause catastrophe
01 June 2005

Powerful ocean currents are grinding slowly to a halt, raising the possibility of a catastrophic climate "flip" that could chill Europe and warm New Zealand, startling new evidence suggests.


Scientists have detected evidence of a slowdown in ocean currents that control climate across the globe, supporting earlier research on the threats of global warming.

Without these currents, parts of the globe are expected to alter dramatically. The climate in Europe would cool significantly, while New Zealand would be warmer and more susceptible to exotic diseases, scientists suggest.

The powerful ocean current system, often known as the ocean conveyor, creates a flow of warm surface water towards the North Atlantic, where it is cooled and sinks to form the circulation of cool deep-sea water throughout the world's oceans.

As part of this process, large "chimneys" of very cold water spiral to the ocean floor, playing a key role in ocean flows.

However, Cambridge University ocean physicist and Polar Ocean Physics Group head Professor Peter Wadhams has released research showing the number of these chimneys has reduced from about 12 to two as a result of global warming. ...cont'd


http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3298684a7693,00.html

[The Traveler]

1. Tipping points are pretty easy to experience

Try balancing a pencil on its tip and predicting exactly where it will land ...

[Selatius]

2. I think it's too late to prevent ecological damage

The entire oceanic-atmospheric system that governs the weather on earth is like a gigantic train. It takes a heavy amount of pushing to get it moving, but once it gets moving, it takes a long time to stop.

We've been pushing hard, and the train is moving, but even if we stopped pushing tomorrow, it's still going to move in the WRONG DIRECTION for a long time to come.

[LiberalVoice]

3. the number of these chimneys has reduced from about 12 to two as a result

In what span of time?

[Selatius]

5. Go here and read a related story:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1602579,00.html

This may help answer your question.

[DemExpat]

8. From this article....

One possibility is that Europe will freeze; another is that the slowing of the Gulf Stream may keep Europe cool as global warming heats the rest of the world — but with more extremes of weather.

Maybe my husband and I should keep a house here in Norhtern Europe and buy something small much further south......southern France or Spain....

What to do, what to do...:-)

DemEx

[Dover]

4. June 1 article: First Snowfall Comes to Somalia

Snowfall in Somalia reported
Wed. June 01, 2005 10:36 am.

The first snowfall on this part of the world has claimed one life and caused extensive damage to properties. Puntland, northeastern part of Somalia has never recorded snowfall before last night when snow storms with high winds destroyed homes in Rako town.

The storm left a blanket of snow on the ground, something residents had never seen in their lives before. Aside from this unexplained snowfall on this tropical land, Somalia has experienced very strange weather in the past few months. ..cont'd

http://somalinet.com/news/world/Somalia/506

[newswolf56]

6. ...Catastrophic Climate Flip

This is interesting because it is approximately what some pre-global-warming climatologists (c. 1940s-1970s) were predicting. Their hypothesis was based primarily on statistical analysis of paleontological evidence and geological data in general, all of it indicating a mathematically regular pattern of ice ages: that -- at least in the Northern Hemisphere -- we were on the brink of another ice age. There was, however, great perplexity as to the geophysical cause, though some speculated the mechanism might be the dwindling and even reversal of the Gulf Stream and the Japan Current, which temper the North Atlantic and North Pacific respectively. Perhaps global warming will prove to be the missing element -- the geophysical mechanism that turns off or shifts these currents and so brings on the ice age the pattern-data suggests is forthcoming.

Once again -- to the ultimate vexation of the all-reality-is-ours-to-master secularists and New Agers, not to mention the bottomless fury of the Yehvehistic fundamentalists -- Gaia rules! Or as Paul Erlich once famously said, "Mother Nature always bats last." And though we humans may fill the atmosphere with smog and lamentations, there is very damn little we can do about the outcome, technology or not. Which is surely not a license to pollute: genuine environmental consciousness starts with the recognition we are all part of a much greater ecosystem -- a truth most ancient humanity seems to have accepted without question (especially in goddess-worshipping cultures), and maybe another ice age is just what it will take to finally restore in us our foremothers' long-lost wisdom -- that which Yehveh banished, but science is just now managing to rediscover: note especially the Gaia Hypothesis (Epton, Margolis and Lovelock).

[Dover]

7. Polar reversal already in effect......caused the tsunami

Year 2012 will experience something very unique. The sun will experience a polar reversal and the earth will also experience a polar reversal. However terrestrial polar reversal takes a long process and has started already.

Polar reversal is process by which the North and South pole reverses position. According to a new study, when polar reversal is in early stage (which is now), the tectonic plates are heavily affected by the changing electro magnetic fields and the resultant change in flux characteristics affecting the gravity. During polar reversal the equilibrium between electromagnetic forces and the gravity of the earth as well as the other parts of the solar system and the galaxy is disturbed. The net effect is unpredictable erratic behavior of the continental and oceanic plates.

In the last six months, three most violent earthquakes happened in the last 150 years. This is accompanied by innumerable small quakes, under water volcanoes, mudslides and more. Simply put, the tectonic plates are slowly going out of equilibrium and are showing chaotic effects. ...cont'd

http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/3023.asp