J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Apparently this fortunate freak of nature that keeps us nice n toasty (and wet) most of the time is looking a bit dicey, bear in mind that we are on a similar lattitude to Moscow and Winnipeg in Canada, therefore by rights it should be a look colder than it is now, been basking in the sun today, painting, cleaning the cars etc etc but if I hear it correctly things may be set to change, Britain is going to be fitted with Air Con.

This is seen to be a bit of a disaster really and based on the way we cope with an inch of wet snow I am inclined to agree, however maybe all the four wheel drive purchases over the last few years are not fashion but nature preparing us for whats to come, group buy on snow tyres notwithstanding.

Anybody know anything else about this.

Brendan Hughes

I hear there's a documentary to be shown soon, "The day after tomorrow" or something like that.

BexTait

Yup, the Gulf Stream does indeed give us the climate we get. It's to do with the thermohaline circulation in the oceans. They think that an input of fresh water (from melting ice) can reduce or stop this, which will have an effect on climate, as it's this 'ocean conveyor belt' that helps transfer energy around the globe, because it affects the formation of NADW (north atlantic deep water) which keeps the 'conveyor belt' moving, so to speak.

Sorry it's a bit technical, but it's appeared in one of my modules this semester, and I'm revising for the exam next week

Bex

IWatkins

See here: http://www.metoffice.com/corporate/p...20040430a.html for quick explanation. Very unexciting and I wouldn't place my snow tyre order just yet.

Cheers

Ian

D Noble

the gulf stream hits the uk right here in ayr, which is why we get leftover rain from hurricane whatever in summer and no snow in winter,just one big dreary season all year!!

GaryK

Yes there was a horizon programme on about this last week and it made for very disturbing viewing! The 'conveyor' as they call it could stop at any time and apparently research found that it had in the past and stopping it can happen very quickly but restarting it can take hundreds of years.

Gary

Franx

You doing a geography degree by any chance?
I covered a lot about that in my dissertation the other term. Very interesting it was too.

It's mainly the input of fresh water from the Greenland land ice that they're worried about, as it's diluting the salt water 'pumps' which drive the whole thing, and causing them to slow down or stop.

Day after tomorrow - it's a film isn't it?

Brendan Hughes

Useless info no. 2753 - the reason Murmansk was so crucial to the Russians is the Gulf Stream stops it freezing in winter, unlike all other Russian ports. It's only ever frozen four times in the last 100 years. And three of them were in the 1990s.

(That's what they told me, anyway)

BexTait

Yup it is indeed a geography degree. The lectures on the thermohaline circulation bit were interesting (I didn't fall asleep )

Leslie

Bex is right in what he says about the Gulf Stream of course and its effect on our climate.

I used to go over to Newfoundland regularly in the winter for training and the difference in the temperatures and climate there were immense for a place on a similar latitude to London. If the conveyor belt does stop, we are in for a very cold time. We will all be on Skiddoos instead of in our Scoobies!

Les

Franx

Snap

When do you finish?

hedgehog

The Gulfstream is driven by the rotation of the earth and the wind. As a recent letter to the science journal Nature pointed out these are unlikey to stop. It also pointed out that the chances of the Gulfstream stopping in the next 10, or was it 100, million years is next to zero. (I don't have the article beside me right now and so can't quote verbatim)

There have been several similar articles in recent times from the scientific community cautioning against crying wolf. To get a research grant you have to have something to research and environmental issues are very much to the fore at present so there is lots of cash in researching the stopping of the Gulfstream. There is no cash at all in researching the fact that the Gulfstream might keep going on its merry way and nothing will change.

If the earth does suddenly stop rotating my guess is that we will all have a lot more on our minds, at least for a second or two, than the likely weather conditions.

With this in mind I will keep driving my car and ignoring environmental nutters. Did you know that 40% of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions are caused by cows farting? Do you see bunches of coleslaw eating cyclists out in the fields hacking cows to death? Me neither. Why are they out on the roads trying to get me to stop driving my car?

Franx

If you look into the number of variables that there are in these scenarios though, the uncertainty level, is very high. That is, they don't know if it's going to happen, but it is quite plausable, should the circumstances continue to change as they are at the moment. Most of the reason for the uncertainty, is that it's only small changes in other variables, that make previously 'solid' scenarios, very implausable....

Don't forget, that's just one group of people's idea of what might happen...

Other thing is though, there's no cash in academia anyway. Most of those people could get a job working for other organisations which paid twice as much, but they don't as they like what they do, and the reasons behind it

BexTait

I'm still in my first year (3 weeks and 2 exams left) so another 2 years to go yet

Franx

Ah. I have two weeks and three exams left
Four years of it. Hasn't half gone quickly