| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Captain Compassion" |
| Date: |
07 Oct 2007 09:31:06 PM |
| Object: |
New northern ice age could send refugees to Aust |
New northern ice age could send refugees to Aust
By Ashley Hall
Posted Fri Oct 5, 2007 6:26pm AEST
Updated Fri Oct 5, 2007 7:00pm AEST
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/05/2052408.htm
Warming around the Greenland ice sheet may impede a 'conveyor belt'
effect in the ocean that is currently keeping Europe out of an ice age
(File photo). (Reuters/University of Colorado: Konrad Steffen)
Audio: Aust to become a key climate change refuge: research (The World
Today) Australia is firming as the destination of choice for what are
becoming known as climate change refugees.
A new study from the Australian National University (ANU) has found
that this country may not be as severely affected by a new ice age as
countries in the Northern Hemisphere.
ANU paleoclimatologist Timothy Barrows and his fellow researchers used
a new dating technique that measures the radioactive elements in some
rocks.
Dr Barrows explains that Europe is at risk of a new ice age as a
result of global warming.
"There are some fears that warming in the Northern Hemisphere,
particularly around the Greenland ice sheet, might cause quite a bit
of meltwater to come into the North Atlantic Ocean," he said.
"That might change the salinity of the water there and stop what's
called 'the great conveyor belt of the oceans' forming deep water that
releases an enormous amount of heat that keeps Europe out of an ice
age, essentially.
"So if global warming does stop this circulation from occurring, then
we could potentially have a new ice age in Europe."
Dr Barrows says this effect is similar to what happened about 12,900
years ago, when the earth experienced rapid cooling.
"There was a collapse of an ice sheet over North America, which slowed
this circulation down, and caused a mini ice age for 1,500 years in
Europe," he said.
He says a new ice age in the Northern Hemisphere is not far off.
"You'd begin to feel the effects almost immediately and certainly
within a century," he said.
Bipolar seesaw
But Dr Barrows says the ANU research, published in the journal
Science, suggests Australia may be somewhat immune from this coming
ice age.
"It was believed that this particular climatic event was global, that
it affected all parts of the world, and certainly some research in New
Zealand supported that," he said.
"There was a paper several years ago on dating the Franz Josef
Glacier. It expanded in the South Island of New Zealand, and that's
certainly placed that ice expanse at about that time.
"However, we've now come along and used a different dating technique
on that site and found that it actually occurs after the cooling
event."
He says that finding lends support to a theory that heat will
accumulate in the Southern Hemisphere if there is cooling in the
north.
"In conjunction with looking at a deep-sea core off the coast nearby,
[it means] that it actually warmed during the period when it was
cooling in the Northern Hemisphere, and that supports a theory called
the bipolar seesaw, which has to do with where heat goes on the planet
when the conveyor belt is operating or not operating," he said.
"So heat tends to accumulate in the Southern Hemisphere if the
conveyor belt is not operating."
Dr Barrows says Australia and New Zealand could then become the
destination for Europeans fleeing the cold.
"If this was to occur, there would be a large number of refugees from
Europe seeking a warmer place to go," he said.
Climate change not globally uniform
He says the findings demonstrate that global climate change will not
necessarily happen in a uniform way.
"We get a lot of regionalisation and it depends on what's causing the
climate change," he said.
"Certainly on the scale of thousands of years, we see the different
parts of the planet can be affected to different degrees.
"So it's important to be able to discover these processes so that we
can better plan for the future."
Dr Barrows says the major changes in the world's climate that happened
thousands of years ago occurred without human causation and over a
long period. In contrast, the current human-caused changes in the
climate are occurring on a much shorter timeframe.
"Certainly on the scale of tens of thousands of years, our climate is
controlled by the way our planet orbits around the sun and where the
sun hits us on the earth," he said.
"On the scale of thousands of years superimposed on top of that is
effects like we see with the conveyor belt where we get heat being
redistributed across the planet.
"But certainly on the scale of 100 years or 10 years, if we're putting
so much CO2 into the atmosphere, that completely overrides these
longer natural processes."
--
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to
escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. -- Marcus Aurelius
Wherever I go it will be well with me, for it was well with me here, not
on account of the place, but of my judgments which I shall carry away
with me, for no one can deprive me of these; on the contrary, they alone
are my property, and cannot be taken away, and to possess them suffices
me wherever I am or whatever I do. -- EPICTETUS
Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMcharter.net
.
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| User: "Adam Whyte-Settlar none@none" |
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| Title: Re: New northern ice age could send refugees to Aust |
09 Oct 2007 11:35:20 PM |
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"Captain Compassion" <daranc@NOSPAMcharter.net> wrote in message
news:hb5jg3dm5pt95chnh0se3ha8phrugn6tlf@4ax.com...
New northern ice age could send refugees to Aust
By Ashley Hall
Maybe Ashley Hall hasn't heard about he refugees FROM south east Australia
as the whole region turns into a saline desert.
We've had 10 years of drought and record temperatures here and over half of
all agricultural land is currently failing to produce a crop. Bearing in
mind that Australia is almost the same size as the continental USA we are
talking about a lot of land.
There is a general move north to the wet tropics but even there temperatures
are forcast to rise an average 5 degrees C from an already blistering level.
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| User: "Captain Compassion" |
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| Title: Re: New northern ice age could send refugees to Aust |
10 Oct 2007 10:00:24 AM |
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On Wed, 10 Oct 2007 14:35:20 +1000, "Adam Whyte-Settlar" <none@none>
wrote:
"Captain Compassion" <daranc@NOSPAMcharter.net> wrote in message
news:hb5jg3dm5pt95chnh0se3ha8phrugn6tlf@4ax.com...
New northern ice age could send refugees to Aust
By Ashley Hall
Maybe Ashley Hall hasn't heard about he refugees FROM south east Australia
as the whole region turns into a saline desert.
We've had 10 years of drought and record temperatures here and over half of
all agricultural land is currently failing to produce a crop. Bearing in
mind that Australia is almost the same size as the continental USA we are
talking about a lot of land.
There is a general move north to the wet tropics but even there temperatures
are forcast to rise an average 5 degrees C from an already blistering level.
So where are the Euros going to go when the glaciers return?
--
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority but to
escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. -- Marcus Aurelius
Wherever I go it will be well with me, for it was well with me here, not
on account of the place, but of my judgments which I shall carry away
with me, for no one can deprive me of these; on the contrary, they alone
are my property, and cannot be taken away, and to possess them suffices
me wherever I am or whatever I do. -- EPICTETUS
Joseph R. Darancette
daranc@NOSPAMcharter.net
.
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: New northern ice age could send refugees to Aust |
09 Oct 2007 11:43:08 PM |
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On Oct 7, 7:31 pm, Captain Compassion <dar...@NOSPAMcharter.net>
wrote:
New northern ice age could send refugees to Aust
By Ashley Hall
Posted Fri Oct 5, 2007 6:26pm AEST
Updated Fri Oct 5, 2007 7:00pm AESThttp://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/05/2052408.htm
Warming around the Greenland ice sheet may impede a 'conveyor belt'
effect in the ocean that is currently keeping Europe out of an ice age
(File photo). (Reuters/University of Colorado: Konrad Steffen)
This would probably cost businesses somewhat more than putting some
emissions scrubbers on smotestacks.
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