Global Warming is 'Twice as Bad as Previously Thought'

[RedEarth]

Global warming might be twice as catastrophic as previously thought, flooding settlements on the British coast and turning the interior into an unrecognizable tropical landscape, the world's biggest study of climate change shows.

Researchers from some of Britain's leading universities used computer modeling to predict that under the "worst-case" scenario, London would be under water and winters banished to history as average temperatures in the UK soar up to 20C higher than at present.


Globally, average temperatures could reach 11C greater than today, double the rise predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the international body set up to investigate global warming. Such high temperatures would melt most of the polar icecaps and mountain glaciers, raising sea levels by more than 20ft. A report this week in The Independent predicted a 2C temperature rise would lead to irreversible changes in the climate.

.......

Myles Allen, of Oxford University, said: "The danger zone is not something we're going to reach in the middle of the century; we're in it now." Each of the hottest 15 years on record have been since 1980.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0127-01.htm

[Spider Jerusalem]

1. Hm...

this seems to ignore evidence that says the Atlantic conveyor current will shut off, thanks to decreased salinity in the North Atlantic, leading to Arctic conditions for Britain and the rest of Northern Europe. Most of what I've seen on the subject suggests that's a far more likely scenario than extreme tropical conditions.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. I've never seen anyone give a likelihood for the conveyor stopping

because they said it was possible, but no-one understood the mechanisms enough yet. Who has managed to do the calculations?

[tom_paine]

6. I still don't buy the "Day After Tomorrow" scenario

Now admittedly, I am no climatologist, but consider, even in the event the conveyor stops, wouldn't it just be a short hesitation in the pattern as we keep pumping greenhouse gases and energy into the atmosphere, causing warming which would eventually (and pretty geologically quickly, possibly) overwhelm the local cooling effect from losing the conveyor with rising temps?

I don't buy the global warming leads to ice age, but what I would envision is a temporary sharp drop that will allow Amerika to continue to deny as the world fries, then finally, for the temps to bounce back up as the loss of conveyor is overwhelmed by atmospheric heating once and for all with no turning back.

That is my speculation.

[RC]

2. Global warming is not so much a temperature rise as it is

an energy increase. That means more violent storms, shifting jet streams, climate change. Dessert to wetlands and vice versa. Some places will get warmer, but others will cool down.

[tll]

3. You may be interested in following this

Part 2 of an expedition is now getting underway (early Feb.) to study warming in the Arctic:

http://www.poletrack.com/

http://www.iceaxe.tv/

These guys placing equipment to monitor the effects...

[RedEarth]

4. Thanks for the link....looks interesting

[90-percent]

7. the future

I'm no scientist, but I've adopted MoDo's recent attitude shift:

FUCK THE FUTURE!

I got no kids, I dont have to be concerned about future generations. I'm 50, I'll be dead in 25 to 40 years and I wont have to be so alarmed about the state of affairs in the USA and the world.

But, in my twilight years, I can look forward to watching the declining years of America and know in my heart it wouldn't have happened without GWB and the stupid greedy frightened Americans that kind of possibly re-elected him.

It's not my problem!

america is stupid and is making all the choices we need for collective decline and global disaster. At least we all got our SUV's and no gas lines! Worrying about the future is for gutless pussies!

-85%