8 February 2004

The culprit is global warming, melting the icebegs on Greenland and the Arctic icepack and thus flushing cold, fresh water

Thom Hartmann describes the Great Conveyor Belt angle on how global warming may precipitate the onset of a new ice age. Just because Europe and the Northern U.S. are experiencing a harsh winter doesn't invalidate global warming theory.
In quick summary, if enough cold, fresh water coming from the melting polar ice caps and the melting glaciers of Greenland flows into the northern Atlantic, it will shut down the Gulf Stream, which keeps Europe and northeastern North America warm. The worst-case scenario would be a full-blown return of the last ice age - in a period as short as 2 to 3 years from its onset - and the mid-case scenario would be a period like the "little ice age" of a few centuries ago that disrupted worldwide weather patterns leading to extremely harsh winters, droughts, worldwide desertification, crop failures, and wars around the world.

Al Gore was derided for his speech in New York last month on global wariming, as New Yorkers shivered in one of the coldest winters in recent memory, but even elements in an environment unconscious administration are concerned - the Pentagon has prepared a report on national security repercussions in the wake of cataclysmic climate change as the result of global warming.

Mother Nature is such an unpredictable master - there's no telling what the future holds in store. However, the evidence is already out there that humans are indeed affecting their environment, despite the wailing of a few skeptics and corporate lobbyists.

Comments

Whats with the global warming crisis thing its soooooo anoying