Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Noice

There is a popular theory, which throws a wrinkle into the hypothesis of global warming, that says that rapid melting of the Greenland ice sheet would disrupt the flow of warm ocean water that keeps northern Europe temperate. The result: most of Europe would experience a mini-Ice Age, while the rest of the planet warms. Now, according to a story in the NY Times, the consensus of climatologists is that the theory is wrong.

The really interesting part of the story is that it's fairly long, yet feels no compulsion to present sound bites from the "other side."

Which, no doubt, will buttress the hypothesis of the liberal media.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's the scenario in "The Day After Tomorrow."

And also the reason why some cognoscenti call it "global climate change" instead of "global warming." They're not just being panderers to the School of Euphemisms. Instead, they're reflecting a belief that some parts of the globe will get hotter and wetter while others, like the Brits, will freeze

Sornie said...

I have always leaned towards climate change. It is much more all-encompassing and likely more accurate. It might only get a handful of degrees warmer here in Minnesota but the Inuits might be wearing short sleeves in April as well.

bjkeefe said...

I think the consensus view is that the planet will, on average and overall, get warmer. If you read the story that I linked to, you'll notice that the main mechanism that had been proposed to create the principal cooler region is now not accepted.

It might well be that some regions will cool off as the rest of the planet warms. But I think the euphemism of "GCC" instead of "GW" is a bad one -- it makes the problem sound less severe than it's likely to be.

ShareThis