Why does Global Warming cause Global Cooling?

Over and over I have read posters who claim that cooling temperatures must be the evidence that global warming isn't occurring.

To find the answer, which has been known for years, do some research on the Thermohaline Conveyor.

Shutdown of the Thermohaline Circulation

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/50ec611d101d7539.png[/atsimg]



Here is a link that does a good job of explaining this. The rest of this post is a direct quote from this article...



Luckily the new ice age from 'The Day After Tomorrow', is fiction, not future. But strange as it seems, global warming might bring colder winters to the UK and parts of North-West Europe. And if it happens, the change could take place over only a decade or so.

Ten years is not long. Certainly not long enough for people, animals and plants to adapt easily if at all. This is why even a small possibility of rapid climate change deserves to be taken seriously. 30%, 10% even a 1% risk of changing to colder winters over only ten years is something we'd want to know about.
Rapid cooling? How?

Wouldn't a warmer Earth mean vineyards in Scotland and Mediterranean beach holidays on the UK South Coast? Rising sea levels, floods, heat-waves, hose-pipe bans and malaria - won't these be the main results of our big gamble with the Earth's climate?

Certainly these are all risks. But they are not the only possible scenario. There is an alternative future of frostier winters, later springs and earlier autumns. This is what we might have to face if global warming shuts down the Atlantic heat conveyor - known to oceanographers and climate scientists as the Atlantic thermohaline circulation or THC, and to the rest of us somewhat inaccurately as the Gulf Stream.

The ocean is a moderating influence on climate in Western Europe. Warm water from the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico flows north and east across the Atlantic. Heat from the tropics is released to the atmosphere and makes our climate warmer and wetter than expected from the latitude we're at. Were this flow to stop our winters would become like those at similar latitudes on the eastern shores of the Pacific. IPCC projections for future changes to the THC suggest that the Atlantic overturning will slow down, but not stop.

Rapid cooling has happened before. Possibly more than once since the last ice age. And paradoxically at least one of these events was a direct result of the Earth becoming warmer.

So could it happen again? How likely is it? How would it happen? How soon could we expect the change to begin? If it starts, how could we detect it? When and how did it happen in the past? Is the situation now sufficiently similar to then? These are the questions the RAPID science programme is working to answer.

[edit on 26-7-2009 by HunkaHunka]

[edit on 26-7-2009 by HunkaHunka]

Here is some more information from fellow poster Zorgon...

Original Post

Originally posted by zorgon


A long time ago in a land at the bottom of the world, there was a lake... a big deep lake like the Great Lakes. This lake is fresh water and still warm from geothermal vents despite the fact it is buried now under miles of ice...

The last time this lake saw the light of day was 420,000 years ago...

Well this lake lies beneath the Russian Antarctic station Vostok, hence its name Lake Vostok.

Now scientists, being the smart wonders that they are, thought it would be cool to drill down and check it out. As they got close... they spotted microbes in the ice... never been seen before... so someone with a brain called a stop... saying it was probably not a good idea to release unknown microbes on an unsuspecting planet..

Ya think?

Anyway never mind the possible extinction of the human race by a 400,000 year old bug for now... the drilling gave us something useful...

ICE CORE SAMPLES. Like tree rings these core samples do not lie. Unlike tree rings they are more accurate and show warm years and cold years reliably...

So here is what 415,000 years of ice core samples are saying...

It is normally very hot in Vegas in July Temps of 120 some days. This year we have had cloud cover almost everyday and its been the coolest spring and summer since I moved here 12 years ago.

I already installed a wood stove and have two years firewood and some coal, emergency blankets and my Canadian Parkas...

OH and according to NASA the sun is in a solar minimum, lowest since we started the space program

Forget 'Global Warming' Don't forget that trees and plants and Algae thrive on CO2 and give off oxygen...

I recommend getting ready for a long cold spell

Edit to add

OH One more important thing.... look at the chart and you will notice that when the pendulum swings, the change happens very fast... in but a few short years

[edit on 26-7-2009 by HunkaHunka]

reply to post by HunkaHunka


If you believe it is man made then it's because of the fresh water changing the gulf stream ......... blah blah blah.If you believe it is part of the cycles earth goes though a much more logical explanation then I don't know.But if you want my opinion it's not warming at all it's cooling and nothing we do is going to affect it much.Here's a thought the genius's who think in order to save a broke country you should spend more money are the ones who came up with that theory aren't they?parallels?.........edit;that was informative and kinda what I was saying.Sorry I should have read the whole op first,I wasn't commenting on your theory when I said the genius's that came up with that theory I was referring to the BS Al bore was pushing.you get a s+f

[edit on 26-7-2009 by genius/idoit]

Global warming causes global cooling because of water vapor condensing in the atmosphere.

As global temperatures rise, heat causes water to evaporate and condense into clouds. After the water vapor is in cloud form the wind carries the clouds to the polar regions. When the clouds rain at the polar regions it creates snow and can lay frozen at the poles for a very long time. Hundreds, thousands or millions of years go by and glaciers form for thousands of miles farther than usual.

After this process taking place for thousands of years, much of the polar regions are under snow and ice and a ice age starts.

That is a simple way to explain how global warming causes global cooling.

End note, just like your air conditioner, it takes heat energy to make air cold. Just like a globe that is cooling into an ice age.

Source. My brain.

Just like in the other thread we were discussing this in, this is turning into a warming/cooling debate. Let's leave the whole man caused fiction out of this for a second. I think a new thread was started here to try to "prove" that this is a "global warming" thing. While I do agree with the ocean currents affecting global temperatures an all, then you must also admit that the warming and cooling of the earth is cyclic and predictable. If so, then that leads to the opposite argument - that global cooling "causes" global warming. Since most of us seem to agree about the natural cycles of warming and cooling, then we must say that warming "causes" cooling and cooling "causes" warming.

Arguing over whether we are having global warming or global cooling is kind of pointless. We are having normal cyclic climate change and are going through the normal, predictable change from warming to cooling.

reply to post by tallcool1


THis thread should be a "cause free" thread. I'm not interested in this thread to debate the causes. Just to prove that rising temperatures can precipitate cooler ones.

That's pretty much it.

reply to post by HunkaHunka



See... Let me make a point....Let's all STOP arguing about it and realize that it DOESN'T matter a bit if it is true or not.... Why you ask?

Because IF it is true, nobody is truly going to do a damned thing about it.

What about "Cap & Scam"?

It is just that... a big scam to make paper traders rich that does nothing about CO2.

You want solutions (for both national security, energy independence, and CO2 discharge it that is a problem, then Build Algae Oil farms in the desert now!

So, stop arguing about what is real or not and understand we are about to be screwed if the Cap & Trade scam is allowed to pass.


We are better than this, not only can we lower pollution and energy dependence by using our heads we can stop these criminal politicians and wall street traders from performing scams that actually HINDER any of these solutions.

[edit on 26-7-2009 by infolurker]

reply to post by HunkaHunka


Didn't you hear, they don't call it Global Warming anymore... they changed it to Climate Crisis... and then after that they changed it to Climate Change, you wanna know why? Because they KNEW for a fact it wasn't actually getting warmer and they couldn't keep the farce up, so now if someone comes to them and presents the low temperature stats they can just be like "Oh yeah, we know, we told you the climate was changing".

Honestly we don't know for sure which was the Climate is going or how much effect humans are having on it through industry so I wish they'd stop hyping Climate Change as something which is in anyway a threat to humanity or the planet in the immediate or near future. Let's calmly get our facts straight rather than be driven into a panic and let's decide to be nice to the planet not because we're all going to die (I'm tired of the Climate Change community hyping Global Warming like we're doomed) but because its the right thing to do...

The time for arguing is through.

People are convinced of their own beliefs.

The time for action is at hand.

Those who believe we are going to see rapidly cooling temperatures we need to continue with our plans to protect ourselves and our families.

Find your locations based on what you believe to be right. Communicate with others who are ready to deal with the coming changes.

By all means stop wasting your time attempting to convince your neighbor... it's a lost cause.

Another short term or simpler global dimming trigger, is related to the increase in cloud cover.

What I mean is that, there is more evaporation due to warmer temperatures, particularly around the tropical zones of the world, increasing cloud cover. The more cloud cover, the more sunlight is reflected back into space during the day time (particularly from ice based clouds such as cirrus and contrails etc). However during the night, long wave radiation is trapped beneath the clouds, resulting in a smaller difference between the max and min temps.

The only issue with this, is that it will most probably not work on a global scale, however in smaller regions, it can make a significant impact.