The Gulf Stream and The Next Ice Age
The Gulf Stream and The Next Ice Age is about the consequences of global warming on The Great Atlantic Conveyor, which has to do with regulating climate and the fear that the melting of ice will stop it, perhaps triggering an ice age.
In the battle against climate change there is no enemy to fight, just our attitudes. - Nicolas Koutsikas, Director. Climate Change is hot on the political and social agenda internationally. Our climate is changing, with industrial production, habitat, transport and everyday human activities acknowledged as causes of global warming.
The Gulf Stream and the Next Ice Age is a one-hour documentary which explores the results of a recent American government report that believes the collapse of thermohaline circulation will take place around the year 2010 and impose a minor ice age on Europe. Could Dublin acquire a climate like Spitzberg, and London like that of Siberia? The Gulf Stream is a powerful surface current, driven by the Trade Winds.
Its origins lie in the Gulf of Mexico and it carries the tropical waters from the Florida Strait to the great banks of the United States, where it heads eastward, carrying its warm waters to the borders of the North Atlantic. As soon as the tropical waters hit the Arctic Ocean, they cool abruptly and plunge towards the abyssal zone to form a loop, known as "thermohaline circulation." Then, like an immense conveyor belt that slows down in the ocean depths, it sets out again southward to rejoin the beginning of the Gulf Stream.
For me it's very simple. At one time all the greenhouse gases were in the atmosphere, life didn't exist on earth. Over billions of years these gases were sequestered in the earth. When say 99 percent of the greenhouse gases were sequestered life on earth started to evolve for millions of years and decomposing carbon matter continued to be sequestered. Along come humans in the last couple of hundred of thounsands of years, remenbered it took these gases and decomposing matter billions of years to be sequestered in its present liquid and solid forms. Now along comes these humans in the last 150 years or so and they start releasing these gases into the atmosphere faster than mother nature can re-sequester them. What happens? The answer is elementary, we start turning back the clock to the point were life on earth in its present form and numbers become unsustainable. What took mother nature billions of years to accomplish we are reversing in a few centuries. All you need to do is look at the gases being measured in the atmosphere today with what they were a few decades ago. That's all for today children.
We'll here we are. 2010 happened six years ago. Have to report: No catastrophe with the Gulf Stream. No new ice age. The last time this happened (ice age caused by re-alignment of the Gulf Stream) was more or less 10,000 years ago. At the time warming (caused by what we really don't know) melted a gigantic two mile-high ice cap that had covered most of Canada for thousands of years. This created, over a period of more than a hundred years, a humongous fresh water lake about half the size of the Mediterranean Sea. The lake at the time very slowly drained down what is now the Mississippi River. But seismic activity (earthquake for all of you from Cleveland) suddenly opened up drainage directly into the Saint Laurence. Fresh water, which would have taken hundreds of years to drain down the Mississippi, suddenly was dumped into the North Atlantic in a very short time. This changed the salinity of the water and caused the Gulf Stream to relocate. This can’t happen again. Where will enough fresh water to fill half the Mediterranean come from? How will it suddenly appear in one or two year’s time, fast enough to drastically change the salinity of the Atlantic Ocean?
It would appear that those of you who are still in denial about climate change probably left school at 16 or read most of the right wing drivel Rupert Murdoch feeds the world!
This is from 2008
More scaremongering disguised as science.
I stopped believing anything the liberal pseudoscience buffoons said 25 years ago, and I was right, every prediction they made did not come true even slightly.
Complete and utter nonsense. Nuff said.
Good video but the most appallingly bad caption subtitling I have ever seen in my life -- by "SBS Australia," who have the gall to boast of their having a "copyright" on their atrocious work. Click on CC to see what I mean for closed captioning. Very poorly transcribed. Better to just try to hear it without reading the transcriber's pathetic gibberish.
err, this documentary is based on the premise that salt water is heavier than fresh. As global warming, and the resulting infusion of fresh water will occur over many years it will affect the global average oceanic salinity levels rather than create a differential
sediment cores are hard to argue with though
it's already too late... if we quit all fossil fuel burning today the CO2 and the methane leaks from Fracking up to right now, already released in the air rising to the stratosphere will melt all the ice. within 100-150 years the earth's population will be reduced to below 1 billion.
What trite rubbish! More alarmist nonsense that serves as food for the gullible. So what exactly caused the other ice ages? Maybe cro magnon cars were too inefficient emitting vast quatities of greenhouse gases.
Give me a break. How about some real science that relies on facts instead of speculation.
Good stuff... well presented!
Damn that gulf stream. THAT'S why you stetson-wearing friends of Uncle Sam, on that side of Thatlantic, have been having extreme heat waves and why us dentist-dodging limeys on t'other side are experiencing (another) cold, wet and grey 'summer'. Pah, so much for that-theeere 'glurbal wurmin' – bah n' pft!
This climate change has REALLY screwed up my purchase of snow shoes for the wife and I .....up here in Canada.All we had this winter was sparks from the alluminum snowshe cleets due to a lack of snow.
Oh well,I've been cold since 1959 and I'm ready to sell the snow shoes and take up sailing because the spring,summer and falls are getting nicer EVERY YEAR !! I guess I'm an optomist at heart and I embrace change.
Snowshoes 50% off ....$800.00 new !! ....will trade for sun block.
To Jordan. Black absorbs heat. So what you are saying is not a proven fact, it is a proven fail. If you laid asphalt for instance in a city, it heats that area up, because it is dark colored and dark colors absorb heat. Go to a science class please.
To John. That is depressing to make the assumption that mankind isn't worth keeping. I bet you don't say your life is worth nothing when you wish to live and have a choice to make a difference. Also, I notice the ? near carbon monoxide. The actual gas you are thinking of is Methane. Methane has a huge footprint compared to CO2. The reason it is assumed that Methane could kill off the world is because of all the trapped gas from all the previously living lifeforms. All bacteria and even large mammals as ourselves produce methane when we live and when we die. It was trapped in the ice during the ice ages. Ages plural because there has been a few more than one including the Little Ice Age which wasn't that long ago in human terms. Corporations have everything to lose just like everyone else. They are not humans (corporations) but they are run by them and they will fight for life like the rest of the planet. To think otherwise is ignorant.
To cptwayne. There is no written evidence of 3 million estimated underwater volcano's. There is evidence of previous volcanic activity but those move to new locations as volcano's tend to do. The Hawaiian Islands are a previous volcanic chain. The islands were created by the crust of the earth (mantle) moving across a hot spot. Which to this day continues to create more islands. Also it was the book of Joshua (and I am not even religious) and it wasn't the earth he spoke about, it was the Sun.
"Then spake Joshua to JEHOVAH in the day when JEHOVAH delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.
And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.
And there was no day like that before it or after it, that JEHOVAH hearkened unto the voice of a man: for JEHOVAH fought for Israel. (Joshua 10:12-14)."
That is the quote you are referring to. Also, never use the bible or any reference to religion when dealing with science, especially if you cannot quote it correctly. The fastest way to be proven false is to do so. Nor are there any facts to back it up. The rouge force that you could speak of never stopped the mantle, it removed the crust / mantle from the earth and created our moon. It was from a previous planet that had the same orbit as the earth and crashed into us Billions of years ago. However you were right, the crust kept spinning and the earth absorbed almost all the mass of that planet. There is also no proof of demagnetization prior to an ice age. Don't just google, read some science journals or something other than stuff about planet Niburu / X.
To Rocky. If you seriously think that there is an alternative that would sustain what we have in the US alone, please tell me and others. Because there is no reason a company wouldn't jump on the band wagon and make trillions in one year alone by having a renewable source. There is no RENEWABLE source. Even solar energy isn't renewable. It is consumed, converted and used. Wind energy isn't renewable because we are not outputting wind once we use it. Laws prevent this from happening. Energy may never be used but only transfered from one form to another.
I swear 90% of this site's viewers have no background in anything. I am not a scientist, I am not an astrologist, I am not a political affiliate. I am someone that actually cares to take the time to educate themselves, ask people that know about the topics, and then come to conclussions just like anyone should. Stop googling and start talking to educated people. This site is just gross at times.
forget science
forget politics
use common sense or your spiderman instincts
30 yrs ago snow was averaging 4 feet by early nov
10 yrs ago avg 2 feet by late nov
nowadays less than a foot and its jan 16
although i am unsure summer temp's i do know they are alot more humid
at the same time i recall hearing snow falls in florida california? and elsewhere over the past 5 yrs? which i never heard of in 30yrs
i also know that based on travel experiences the changes seem to occur in highly populated areas - big cities mainly in north america (dont notice it as much in europe or mexico - although i dont live there)
i dont really factor in hurricanes / floods ...as proofs but who knows
one interesting fact? which i seen on a show where they mentioned some large glacier melting by 2015? or 2025? which will cause an increase in carbon monoxide? levels which will cause a point of no return ( a substantial raise in levels that will increase tenfold and there will be no stopping
although gores video may be bs, i dont belive the before and after pics of glaciers melting are noty fake, which should be a concern in general
i strongly believe that alot of these issues are normal natural occurances
i also agree gov's/corporations will milk the public with propaganda to make money as i already see it for environment charges, plastic bags, disposal...all new charges which will do absolutley nothing on overall effect
the worst part is that they will do so even if it does mean mass destruction
as george carlin says we are like ants and the earth can continue on with nio ill-effects but i believe even george realizeds that we (mainly north americans) are really like termites and we will destroy anything & erything in sight.
since i was a kid i tried to not litter, turn off lights, not walk on lawns, not burn plastics, not let car idles, not waste water...stupid little things to some people but common sense / moral values to others
on one hand i beleive thaT global warming, natural or unnatural is a HUGE issue and we should all try to prevent it for the future of mankind
on the other hand mankind is pretty disappointing and i welcome an end to our existence
it seems like the majority of people that are "spoiled" choose to ignore/contribute issues until its too late ...
good luck to future generations and planet earth
What did the American Academy give us? Milton Friedman and Neo-Liberal Economics-the end of history-this is it-the Fifth Riech-forever! Now that is a real laugh wouldn't you say? Unfortunately-the people in power the 1% and their illegitimate inbred offspring in the political sphere make sure it stays that way.
RR
although i do agree with your very documentary orentainted opinion on world poplation, the fact of the matter is that we all know in our heart of hearts we are all to blame for pretty much everything wrong with this world because we let the powers that be sell us any old s***t and then pretend to belive them because it makes us feel better, any how this doco provoked me to write somthing else so enjoy.
lifes a rose
Who are we to to dig and tear in to our mother earth's breast with out a care.
How can we defend the things we do, when ignorance infests most of you.
We should be the defenders of earth's emerald eyes, and yet we cut into them with our saws and scythes.
Our mothers forests has fallen by half, in less than a century well actually half, and still we sit and listen to those, who tell us its peachey and life's a rose.
When europe freezes up the sahara dersert will probably turn into the tropical forest and grasslands it was the last time europe was in an ice age.
I once heard someone say ''we are in the test tube runnng the test''.
There should be a reversal of white european emigration to southern spain, middle east, northern africa as that's where the areable land would be
I first read about the theory of the shutdown of the Gulf Stream conveyor in a science magazine (I believe it was Scientific American) about thirty-five years ago. At that time there was no concern about climate change induced by global warming and the idea was simply posited as a reason for the very rapid cooling of Europe resulting in the last ice age. The reasoning behind it seems well founded. Now, even if you don't believe global warming is caused by human activity, what do we gain by remaining on our present course? Our continuing use of fossil fuels to power our activities cannot have a positive outcome. Ignoring the catastrophic ice age that could result in Europe, the diminishing supply of fuel to power our world will present us all (or at least our children an grandchildren) with an ever diminishing quality of life. Travel, trade, and even the much beloved foreign wars for fun and profit benefiting powerful nations would decline. We are all trapped in a system that is almost impossible to change because of a complete lack of political will.
As a young man in love with his V8 powered '57 Chevy I was oblivious to these concerns. We must now, en mass, leave these adolescent foibles behind and and begin to understand the need for public transit and renewable energy sources to power our world.
How we get there is, unfortunately, well beyond the knowledge and scope of a sixty-three year old guy still trying to make a living. =:0(
So many god damn Nay sayers below!!! I have a theory that all you HCGW (Human Caused Global Warming) skeptics are just so f--king lazy you can't stand the idea you might have to actually get off your asses and DO SOMETHING to possibly avert such circumstances. I also believe from what I have learned hat natural cycles occur and this may be one but how can anyone believe that human activity is not contributing or even accelerating it? You can't tell me that all of our unprecedented industrial and agricultural practices have NO negative effect on the environment on which we depend to survive. Yes OUR SURVIVAL as a species and that of others is the only thing on the line here, the earth has been through much worse and survived just fine, its inhabitants are the ones who rise and fall when the shit hits the fan.
I LOLed through the whole thing. What a load of poo.
You know --- people should quite worrying about the cause of something as major as a recurring change in the climate. A quick internet review of ice core researchers will show you that changes are perpetual. Try doing something to prepare for these eventualities and get a life. If you don't do it for yourself, no one else will. The bodies that promote law changes to "save" us from what ever threat they have invented will simply take your money, and remove your freedoms. Instead of paying higher taxes to save us from terror or climate (which does neither), spend your money on beans, bullets and a good fur coat. If it's too hot, remove the coat -- you may still need the beans and bullets.
interesting doc, i liked the theory of drowning as many muslims as you can before we all freeze to death....wait oh hold on thats just my theory but it works go try it ppl!!!!