Global warming can trigger an ice age?

Question

Global warming can trigger an ice age?

Answer 1

No.

This religious science is the stupidest thing to overwhelm the population since the Spanish Inquisition or Salem (and other) Witch Trials.  Science by consensus is not science, and this whole thing is just a way to make trillions off gullible people.

The sun, the moon, oceanic bacteria, sub-oceanic volcano activity, the changing magnetic poles and protective magnetic fields around the earth... all of these are DOCUMENTED and REPRODUCABLE factors that affect our climate naturally, but none of it is talked about.

Seriously, if you step back and see it from the outside, the global warming and "climate chaos" pseudo-science is positively frightening with its cult-like manipulation and nonsensical non-scientific conclusions.

And as usual, a gullible public accepts it as truth.

P.T. Barnum wins again.

Answer 2

In the mind of a greenie apparently so. Also I'm going to start a foundation to fight global warming on Mars. Scientists have proven that the temperature on Mars is heating up so I want to put a ban on Martians driving SUV's. They are destroying that planet.

Answer 3

Global warming causes everything, and everything is proof that man is causing global warming.

When we had more hurricanes than average, that was proof that man was causing global warming.  The next year when there were so few hurricanes, well that too was proof of global warming.

This years record cold, yep, man made global warming.  So are floods and droughts.

Since everything man does causes global warming, believers are doing everything they can to have gvmts place strict limits on man's freedoms.  For them, this is the only way to save us from ourselves.

Answer 4

Scenes GW didn't happen how can it trigger anything.

Answer 5

hair spray can trigger global warming

Answer 6

Not sure exactly how, but apparently it can.

Answer 7

Only in Hollywood B-Movies.

Answer 8

Most scientists think that it was dust in the atmosphere. Maybe from an impact, maybe from volcanic activity. Either way there are records of an approx 1 year dust cloud covering the planet. Which would cause an ice age, nuclear winter, call it what you want. Global warming can cause irreparable damage, it can trigger a lot of weather patterns, obviously. Changing the natural way of the weather, doubtful that it would cause an ice age. It could heat the planet and trap gasses making it far more toxic then it now is quite easily though.

* by records I refer to core and atmospheric core samples in rock and ice, science can approximate the atmosphere as far back as tens of thousands of years by studying ice cores

Answer 9

No.

The Earth cools and warms naturally.  It warmed a bit, now it's cooling again.

There was no 'global warming' as they put it now back before the last ice age.  It happened -naturally- and it ending happened -naturally-.

Answer 10

I know it sounds a bit crazy but geoweeg explains the theoretical science to explain why.

It is a fact that the UK and western Europe are much warmer than we should be for our latitude. This is mainly due, as he states, to the fact that the Gulf Stream brings warm ocean currents to our area and helps to keep our local weather rather mild.

IF something were to cause that current to be diverted or stop entirely, then we would be in serious trouble.

At least, we would have much more severe winters than we do experience now!

I like the fact that he doesn't take a stand on the issue of whether global warming is an issue or not, or if man has any role to play.

He simply states the known facts and theory of what could happen.

This is what tells me he is a scientist.

NOT because he claims to be one, but because he simply states the known facts and theories(unlike a couple of "Top Contributors" we have here).

So for his answer I have to give a "THUMBS UP"!

This isn't to say that he is the only one that I agree with, or that he is the only one that received my approval, I just liked his way of answering this particular question.

Answer 11

If it's hot:  Global Warming

If it's cold:  Global Warming

If it's dry:  Global Warming

If it's rainy:  Global Warming

If it's calm:  Global Warming

If it's stormy:  Global Warming

Any weather conditions not listed are caused by Global Warming.

Don't make me go all Al Gore on you!  :-)

Answer 12

It was a minority opinion expressed by a few back in the 70's.  The math turned out to have major errors.  You hear about it from time to time as "Global Warming predictions can't be trusted because the same people predicted an ice age in the 1970's"  Not true, never was true, just a minority opinion by a few guys who had their facts wrong.  One thing to keep in mind is that UNLIKE scientific publications, the popular press is tasked with presenting both sides of an issue, no matter how inane, while the scientific press presents what the authors can support with facts while following strict protocols.

The basic idea was pretty simple.  Global Warming causes more evaporation from the oceans at the equation.  That in turn causes more precipitation (as we are seeing).  At the poles that takes the form of snow.  The snow accumulates faster at the poles, expanding the ice pack, and more heat reflects back into space.  That causes the earth to get cooler, causing more snow, until you get a runaway effect.  Lowell Ponte, founder of the denier/skeptic movement came up with that one.  There's nothing wrong with his reasoning, he was just out of his depth on the math.

There's a different variation that says the huge amounts of cold fresh water being dumped into the seas by the melting of the polar caps could change the "global conveyor" (the world wide system of warm and cold ocean currents that has profound effects on both climate and weather).  It can't really be disproven, because we don't understand that system very well.  By the same token its equally hard to support that theory, again because we don't understand that system very well.

Let me give you a more recent example of this "popular press" effect, especially as it confuses the uninitiate.  You will see posts that will say "Did you hear the scientists have  changed their mind about Global Warming being caused by man made CO2?  Now they say it's happening on Mars too, and is caused by natural variations in the sun.  That shows you can't believe anything a scientists says".  (but also disproves Global Warming!)

So what's wrong with that?  Well when you look at the sources you don't find "scientists say" or "experts say".  What you find is "Scientist Says", just like with the one in the 1970's.  So who is the scientist contradicting the experts?  He is Habibullo Abdussamatov, head of space research at St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory .  So he's not only a household word, but like Lowell Ponte, he is not a climatologist.  So what else do the articles say?

"  Abdussamatov's work, however, has not been well received by other climate scientists."

"His views are completely at odds with the mainstream scientific opinion,"

"the idea just isn't supported by the theory or by the observations."

"Perhaps the biggest stumbling block in Abdussamatov's theory is his dismissal of the greenhouse effect, in which atmospheric gases such as carbon dioxide help keep heat trapped near the planet's surface."

"  He claims that carbon dioxide has only a small influence on Earth's climate and virtually no influence on Mars. "

"without the greenhouse effect there would be very little, if any, life on Earth, since our planet would pretty much be a big ball of ice,"

So the main thing wrong with this idea is that if it were true we wouldn't be here discussing it.  Yet I guarantee you that 30 years from now (if we are still here) when the weather and climate scientists are trying to educate the world about some really important Global Warming issue there will be some guys saying "Well you can't believe what THEY tell you.  Those same scientists said Global Warming was happening on Mars too back in aught-eight.  How dumb can you get?"

Answer 13

i really dont get the answers above but anyway. yes global warning definitely can  trigger an ice age . Due to global warming , the glaciers and large ice caps in different parts of the world are melting, especially in the artic, antartic and greenland.this causes an increase  in the water level and this increase disrupts the all important hot and cold ocean currents. the hot ocean curents are really important as they warm some areas which otherwise would be frozen. hence any disruption could divert ot stop these ocean currents and send some places into an ice age

Answer 14

Time was, AGW believers would tell you that 'The Day After Tomorrow' was really bad fiction - so don't waste an hour and a half watching it.  

If the weather keeps getting colder, they will start saying, I think global warming is causing this cooling, just like it did in the day after tomorrow.  

Is it any wonder there are so many skeptics.

Answer 15

I think what you're talking about is the interruption of the North Atlantic Current (the gulf stream).

The UK and western Europe are much warmer than they should be, based on their latitude, due to the warm water forced northward by the North Atlantic current.  If something should happen to interrupt  this current, which has happened before, Europe, and most of the northern hemisphere would be plunged into another ice-age.

Salt water is denser than fresh water, so salt water will sink below the fresh.

If global warming were to increase rapidly, it would melt the Greenland ice sheet and introduce enough freshwater into the North Atlantic to prevent the current from completing its cycle and providing heat to the northern hemisphere.

Some scientist argue that this is a very real possibility, while others argue that there is no way for the globe to warm up fast enough to create the amount of freshwater needed.

Answer 16

it is possible the north atlantic thermohaline circulation (gulf stream) could be disrupted by melting ice in the arctic sea, which could cause cold conditions for northern europe, as probably happened for a few hundred years in the european 'little ice age', but not a world wide proper big long ice age.