The Big Chill

ianmc38

A friend of mine was telling me about this BBC Horizon documentary that talks about an eighth ice age occuring in the UK and Ireland over the course of the next century as a reuslt of Global warming.

Can anyone explain the scientific reasons ebhind this happening and the actual chances of it another ice age occuring in that timeframe?

punky

Despite being at the same latitude as places such as Canada and Russia that get extremely cold winters, Ireland and Britain have mild climates due to the warm currents coming up through the gulf stream.

One of the possible scenarios of global warming is the slowing down and eventual cessation of these warm currents due to large-scale melting of artic ice.
This has happened before (albeit due to natural warming, not warming caused largely by human activity).

As for how likely this scenario is, I'm just not sure. I've read conflicting reports and newspaper articles. The bottom line is that there is now scientific consensus that the earth is warming and we are to blame. There doesn't, however, appear to be any real consensus about what the specific effects of this warming will be (beyond the obvious ones such as rising water levels, drought and mass species extinction).

I'm not a scientist so please correct me if any of the above is incorrect.

Belle_Morte

I think this is a transcript of the documentary your friend was talking about.

The times carried another interesting article on the diversion of the gulf stream and the causes behind it.