Sprintcyclist wrote on Jan 8^th, 2010 at 4:37pm:



What do you think the effect of global warming on the Gulf Stream is likely to be? (or is)

Do you expect the warming trend to be totally uniform across the world? - because nobody is saying that. Do you understand global warming to imply that we'll never get a single cold winter? If you do, you don't understand the basic principles.

muso wrote on Jan 8^th, 2010 at 8:07pm:



Bozo Garrett was quick to shout 'global warming' when he heard that the last decade was 0.2 warmer than some other decade.

0.2 degree per decade. Just in Australia, as an average.

ANd the minister of the crown is stupid enough to get up and crow about it. Then 2 days later half the northern hemisphere is under snow. Doesn't Garret have access to the weather bureau's forecasts?

Bloody loonies.

Well ignorant denialists will of course be totally unaware of the predicted consequences of global warming, one of which was far more extreme weather variations in the atlantic coast regions, where even minor disruptions to the gulf stream would lead to colder winters.

Because that was based on work done by real scientists, it is unsurprising that denialist should be totally ignorant of it.
Maybe the potty peer can make up a theory for you, it might be the water vapour one again, he may not be a real scientist, but he gets a big tick for recycling.

Soren wrote on Jan 8^th, 2010 at 9:27pm:


The Day after Tomorrow was hype at its worst. Obviously it's not going to get to that stage where aircraft disappear over the Scottish Highlands due to extreme cold.

However, there has been a considerable amount of research on the effects of the Gulf Stream slowing.  While there is no strong concensus on it, some scientists suggest a sudden cooling in Winters  are likely over a short (one decade) timescale. It's a plausible scenario at least, and certainly nothing like the Hollywood Blockbuster, which was basically junk science.

One of the main protagonists was Terry Joyce:

http://www.whoi.edu/profile.do?id=tjoyce

lol, I watched a really, really low budget doomsday scenario film recently, where an asteroid broke up and a bit hit the earth, knocking it off it's axis, and mini magnetic poles, that killed anybody touching anything electrical as the pulses went by, were created willy nilly, so they dropped nuclear bombs in the mariana trench to knock it back on it's axis.

The interesting bit was the whole "pole reversal" scenario, where the earth does a somersault.
I suppose it is only "natural" though.

Just if you live in the UK.

Yes, it is true that we do not know absolutely all the details of every factor that can impact on our weather, but we do know a great deal about a great many, enough to have a very high degree of confidence on the predictions that we receive every day.

We see denialists scoffing at scientists by saying they cannot even get tomorrow's forecast right, so why should we believe anything they say, yet the facts are that forecasting is extremely accurate, and very rarely are they very far off, if at all, with their predictions.

The effects of global warming, where the warming causes local changes to traditional moderating influences, like the gulf stream, are very well researched, and the prediction of colder, more violent storm seasons, has been forecast for some considerable time.

So put simply, unless we see a pattern of the GLOBAL temps dropping, or even stabilising, consistently over a significant period of time, then the claims that local cold snaps are signs that global warming has stopped, should be taken with a grain of salt.

The term "alarmists" is a popular one amongst denialists, for any who propose that humans should act to reduce CO2 emmissions drastically, and rapidly, to attempt to avert the worst scenarios from occurring, and the absolute worst possible effect for humans will be extinction.

If that is not alarming enough for the denialists, we can also look forward to having to witness some very unpleasant events along that path, if we decide to just keep trying to ignore it, but what the heck, it is only natural.