Quote (inkanddagger @ Thu, Jun 11 2009, 11:30am)
@ bolded: Global warming will cause billions of ton of freshwater ice to dissolve into the salt ocean, diverting the jet stream, or even stopping it. One of the theories is that cold air from the arctic and antarctic, after the jet stream stops carrying warmer air to northern areas, will be redistributed around the globe...so the temperature will trend towards a cooling in both hemispheres but will trend towards warming at the poles as well as the equator. The net trend, because entropy always increases in a closed system (which the earth and its atmosphere basically are), is that the globe will trend towards warmth; this means that localized climate change, although it may trend toward cooling at most latitudes, will be the effect of a net trend of global warming.
Sure that is the idea of global climate change except I thought ocean currents were more important than the jet stream. The global cooling people I'm hearing from are of the thinking this lack of solar activity may cause the cooling.
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Quote (balrog66 @ Thu, Jun 11 2009, 01:10pm)
Whilst the influence of the sun on the earth's climate is large, there are more variables than just that. The angle of the rays, the distance of the sun to the earth etc. We are actually still in one of the cooler periods of the earth, which could lead to an ice age (IE, decrease in sun activity -> more snow -> more reflection of sun rays -> more snow etc etc. The only way for such a cycle to be broken might be by a great eruption of volcano(es) of some sort IE Yellowstone-size) . Having ice on both poles is very unique aswell, hasn't happened a lot in our earth's history. If we look at the history, we find that the earth has been warming up and cooling down in cycles. We are still in the 'cool' part of the cycle. If the climate would again go back to ice age, it might go even more drastically than the ice ages +-10.000 and 50.000 years ago, but not up to the drama of the Permafrost (IE earth is the biggest snowball ever seen).
In the past it would seem excessive volcanic activity helps cool the planet not warm it up.
Do you have a reference for the pole ice statement?
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Quote (XSergeX @ Thu, Jun 11 2009, 04:02pm)
the world works on a series of cycles such as al-nino and la-nina (1-5 year cycles) and cycles that are greater that that (10-100 years). such as a 20 year heating/cooling period.
but we also know that when the ambient temperature of the earth heated up to 73 degrees F (even the water on the poles, thats like swimming temperature) 75-90% of the planet turned into scrub and brush, most life was pushed to the poles.
yea.....we KNOW because.....how else would alligators be frozen in the ice cap?
Do you have references on this information?