Brits say we are stopping an ice age

[Kylere]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ ... TPScience/

Earth's current climate may last for at least another 15,000 years, barring any effects from human intervention, according to a new study of Antarctic ice published in the latest issue of the journal Nature.

The British Antarctic Survey said scientists and engineers from 10 European countries collected cylinders of ice about 10 centimetres wide and three metres long from Dome C, a location on East Antarctica about 1,000 kilometres from the nearest research station, over the past eight years.

Analysis of the chemical composition and physical properties of the samples show the buildup of methane and carbon dioxide and how the Earth's atmosphere has changed over time, according to the report. Snowflakes collect atmospheric particles and trap pockets of air between crystals as ice forms.

Preliminary analysis of the ice samples show that the current concentration of carbon dioxide is the highest in the past 440,000 years, according to the study. That shows how humans have changed the composition of the air, said geologist Jerry McManus, an associate scientist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts, who wrote an accompanying article.

"This study is not a global-warming study, but the context of understanding the linkage between greenhouse gases and climate is really strengthened by this ice core, and gives us once again pause to consider the implications of such dramatic changes as we've wrought," Dr. McManus said in an interview.

The planet's climate during the past 500,000 years has been characterized by cold periods, called glacials, lasting about 100,000 years, followed by warmer stretches, called interglacials, lasting about 10,000 years, according to the study.

Previous studies of Antarctic ice samples have found about four separate climate cycles in the past 430,000 years, the study says. The current interglacial cycle has lasted about 12,000 years.

About 430,000 years ago, the glacial periods began to lengthen and interglacials began to shorten, according to the study. The longest interglacial period in history, which began about that time, lasted about 28,000 years and strongly resembles the current stage, leading scientists to believe that another glacial period will begin in about 15,000 years.

"Eventually there will be an ice age coming and if we were still pumping [carbon dioxide] into the atmosphere then we could think about preventing that ice age," said Eric Wolff of the British Antarctic Survey in a telephone interview.

"But we're predicting that an ice age won't come for another 15,000 years, and by then all the fossil fuels will be gone, so we won't still be pumping [carbon dioxide] into the atmosphere."

The study may give more ammunition to those who say global warming is on the rise, Dr. McManus said, although it doesn't show what the future holds.

The study should give pause to critics of global-warming theories, Mr. Wolff said.

"If you're a greenhouse skeptic . . . then what you're looking for in the past is a time when carbon dioxide changed and temperature didn't change," he said. "The bad news is, we can't find any of them. So our expectation is that if you go into the future and keep pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the climate will warm. It's already 30 per cent higher than at any time in the last half-billion years."

[Adex_Xeda]

With the invention of ice flavored crystals in our chewing gum, I propose a wide scale dusting of the world's deserts with the afor mentioned material.

[Winnow]

Clearly this supports the american way of life. We have once again saved planet earth from disaster with our massive carbon dioxide output. I'd hope democrats are strung up for suggesting more emission control.

[Midnyte_Ragebringer]

http://www.co2science.org/journal/2003/v6n46c3.htm

A Continuous 200-year Instrumental Temperature Record from Northern Sweden
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Reference
Klingbjer, P. and Moberg, A. 2003. A composite monthly temperature record from Tornedalen in Northern Sweden, 1802-2002. International Journal of Climatology 23: 1465-1494.
What was done
Working with "previously unexplored observational temperature data for the period 1802-62 from Overtornea and Kalix in the Tornedalen area in subarctic Sweden (~66°N)," together with similar data from the nearby Haparanda weather station, the authors developed "a continuous Tornedalen temperature series" that stretches from 1802 to 2002.

What was learned
Over the two-century period of record, mean annual air temperature rose by 1.97°C, with the greatest increase occurring in winter (2.83°C) and the smallest increase in summer (0.88°C). This warming, in the words of the authors, "culminated in the 1930s," so that "the warmest decade was the 1930s."

What it means
Throughout the period of the most significant greenhouse gas buildup during the course of the industrialization of the world, i.e., 1930 and onward, the Tornedalen temperature series indicates there has been no net warming in that area of Northern Sweden, just as there has been no net warming in most of the United States over this period (see U.S. Climate Data on our sidebar). Hence, these particular data provide no evidence for any CO2-induced greenhouse warming, and they demonstrate there is nothing unusual about the warming of the past quarter-century that climate alarmists typically describe as being unprecedented over the last two millennia.

Pretty much the same story is told by comparative data the authors present for Vardo, Oulu, St Petersburg, Uppsala and Helsinki: if the temperature trends of these five sites were averaged together, they too would show little to no net warming since the 1930s. Also, the Uppsala temperature series, which is the longest of the lot, indicates it was equally as warm as it has been recently back in the 1730s and 40s.



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