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> And with a warming globe overall, there will definitely be no new ice age. That's bullocks. That's not how "global warming" works, which is why scientists ar
by kobeya 9y ago
> And with a warming globe overall, there will definitely be no new ice age.
That's bullocks. That's not how "global warming" works, which is why scientists are typically careful to call it "climate change." The temperature of a region is predominantly affected by ocean and air currents. Sunny Marseille in France with its Mediterranean climate is the same latitude as New England. Montreal gets bitter cold for 5 months of the year but London, a full 5deg further north, gets a few days of snow and a lot of rain.
These differences in regional weather at the same or similar latitudes are waaaaay bigger than the few degrees global average increase we see in world-is-ending predictions, and are entirely due to these ocean currents. If they slow down significantly or stop or change direction, it'd be a big freaking deal. If the English Midlands started getting winters like Winnipeg, Canada, that'd be a pretty big deal. While not a glacial period per se, it'd be worse than Europe's Little Ice Age, so I'm going to go ahead and call it what it is.
- yxhuvud 9y ago> These differences in regional weather at the same or similar latitudes are waaaaay bigger than the few degrees global average increase This is true, but it is also irrelevant. The keyword 'global average' - global heating will not be uniform. The closer an area is to the poles, more heating will happen. Europe is pretty far north so the effects will be pretty large. Large enough to offset the Atlantic streams? Perhaps, perhaps not. I'm more worried about changing precipitation patterns, to be honest.
- s_kilk 9y agoTemperature change is also effected by distance from water. For example: +4 degrees C global average would mean about +2 in Ireland, while inland USA soars to +8.
- kobeya 9y ago> The closer an area is to the poles, more heating will happen. I see no basis for this assertion.
- yxhuvud 9y agoSee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_amplification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polar_amplification for details.
- TheSpiceIsLife 9y agoFrom the linked Wikipedia article: Where the atmosphere or an extensive ocean is able to convect heat polewards, the poles will be warmer and equatorial regions cooler than their local net radiation balances would predict.* In the extreme, the planet Venus is thought to have experienced a very large increase in greenhouse effect over its lifetime,[3] so much so that its poles have warmed sufficiently to render its surface temperature effectively isothermal (no difference between poles and equator). Both palaeoclimate changes and recent global warming changes have exhibited strong polar amplification, as described below. Both palaeoclimate changes and recent global warming changes have exhibited strong polar amplification, as described below.