How Will Global Warming cause the Ice Age?

Question

How in the world will warming cause that an Ice age?
Please don't give me a internet page to visit cause i have seen all of them! tell me yourself how it is possible! Explain The process!

Answer 1

The last ice age in Europe is thought by some to have been caused by an instance of global warming. Which, like any good paradox, has an explanation:

This is thought to have occurred because of disruptions in the circulation of global oceanic water. This water is normally heated at the equator, moves north over the top of colder (and therefore denser) water, and then loses its heat in northern (and southern) latitudes. As it does so, it sinks down to the bottom and eventually migrates underneath the warm water back down to the equator. This flow is well documented.

Some think, however, that a large mass of fresh water flowing out from the poles would stop this current. Fresh water is a lot less dense than salt water, so its flow into the ocean would tend to directly oppose the flow of hot water from the equators. No oceanic currents also means almost no global distribution of heat. So North America and Europe would enjoy arctically cold currents instead of equatorially warm ones. The equator would get hotter and non-equatorial regions would get colder.

Of course, getting colder helps to build the ice back up. So though we're talking about a disruption, it would be a very short one on climactic time scales. Unfortunately, a short time on that kind of scale is still quite a while - that European ice age I mentioned above (called the Younger Drvas and also the Big Freeze) lasted about thirteen hundred years!

Whether this all really happens, though, is somewhat a matter of debate. Large influxes of melting glacial water from Greenland and Hudson Bay are thought to have caused the Younger Dryas. Average temperatures dropped about fifty degrees. Which is not exactly nothing, either - the difference between a sweltering day and a chilly one... or between a chilly one and down right snowed in.

Answer 2

I don't know in full detail, but the heat built up from global warming will melt ice in North America and Greenland and this will cause an overload of freshwater which will shut down the current to Europe and the eastern side of the planet because there will be too much freshwater and not enough salt water. Somehow this causes the eastern side of the world to go into an ice age. I forget how, but it is accurately described in "An Inconvenient Truth" (which is a documentary on the subject). Sorry if this is not a sufficient answer.

Answer 3

Essentially the way this works is based on the current flow and balance of cold and warm water currents in the ocean. Should global warming get to an extreme point, the heat coming into the earth will melt the polar ice caps and other glaciers, causing large amounts of cold water to enter into the Atlantic Ocean. The theory behind the "ice age" then states that this large input of cold water will shut down the normal currents, which currently bring warm waters by Europe, keeping it much warmer than it otherwise would be given its latitude. Thus, these waters will no longer warm it, causing Europe to experience a much colder climate.

Answer 4

well ive been asking someone about it and he seems to have his own opinion that he doesnt belive in global warming because the earth has been getting hotter on its own naturally for billions and billions of years. Maybe one day there might be a dormant volcano and that it might explode covering the earth with its natrual gasses and such also covering the earths atmosphere as well which covers the sun thus the earth will get colder like in the negatives making an ice age. Also maybe it might just be a process in the beginning earth was nothing but a ball of fire. so how did it turn into an ice age? well maybe there might be a process the earth will burn and in some chaotic event will cause a second ice age. Also the earths core is getting colder and colder since it was created from the begining. Who knows? there are different theories and opinions about this.

Answer 5

It shouldn't unless the air gets so full of dust and dirt that it blocks out the suns rays. Global warming will instead make the northern and southern regions more like what the equator is now and it would make the equator region more into a desert. We would also probably experience more rainfall and monsoons across the globe. And the water level would rise a foot or two putting some areas under water.

As global warming occurs, the earth's atmosphere gets warmer. The polar ice caps would melt raising ocean levels. The higher overall atmospheric temperature would raise rate that water is evaporated thereby increasing rainfall in certain areas and other areas it could cause them to dry out quicker because the water gets evaporated quicker. Most likely your hotter areas would turn to deserts and that would be the areas around the equator. Mountain ranges would also play a big factor in what areas became deserts and which ones get heavily rained on since the mountains would help trigger the rainfall.

Answer 6

OK. The Gulf Stream in the North Atl antic basically gives Europe and northeastern North America its warm weather. (look at a map most of Europe lines up with CANADA yet has a warming climate). Now cold water is heavier than warm water so it sink to the bottom of the Gulf Stream while the warm water is on top of it. If the glaciers melt all that cold water form the nor thern glaciers will flow into it disrupting the balance. Then all the cold water would circulate around due to the Coriolis Effect and cause an ice age.

Answer 7

The theory is - and bear in mind that it is only a theory - that cold meltwater running off the Arctic and Greenland Ice Caps could interupt the Gulf Stream.

I'll explain in more detail...

The Gulf Stream (or Atlantic Conveyor) carries warm water from the Tropics to the North Atlantic, the result is that northwestern Europe is considerably warmer than other countries at the same latitude. Without the Gulf Stream temperatures in countries like Iceland and the United Kingdom would fall by as much as 10 dgrees Celsius.

The Gulf Stream is part of the Thermohaline Circulation (a density driven global system of ocean currents). The name thermohaline derives from thermo for heat and haline for salt, both of these affect density.

The meltwater from the ice caps is cold, fresh water, by contrast the seas and oceans are comparatively warm, salt water.

Here's the problem. The cold water is MORE dense than warm water but because it's fresh water it's LESS dense than the salt water. No-one can say with any accuracy what will happen to the Gulf Stream when it mixes with the meltwater. It may be unaffacted, it may be knocked off course, it may terminate in the Mid Atlantic, it may 'switch off' altogether.

Those who like to be dramatic (film-makers, alarmists etc) tend to go overboard and exaggerate what MAY happen in the WORST possible case.

The worst case scenario is that the Gulf Stream 'switches off'. This would cause a very rapid cooling of some North Atlantic countries. Glaciers would advance over many years in Iceland, Greenland and the Scandanavian countries, parts of the United Kingdom could see the return of permenant glaciers (all the ones that were there have melted, there used to be semi-permanent glaciers in Scotland until about 100 years ago). These changes will occur slowly, people will have time to adjust and where necessary, to move elsewhere.

Because the Gulf Stream only conveys warmth (as opposed to generating it) what would happen if it shut down is that the warmth would be diverted elsewhere with the result that some places will cool down and others will warm up.

There is only one Gulf Stream, it's working aren't clearly understood and it's not something that can be recreated in a lab. As such it's hard to speculate what may happen to it in the future.

If we extend the time scale to one of thousands of years it's probable that the thermohaline circulation will be very different, it may not exist, it may be moving in completely different ways. It could be affected by the warming of the seas and oceans, it could be affected by meltwater from both polar regions - we just don't know. If it does change (and it probably will as it changes in time anyway) then some countries will be warmer, some colder and there will be pronounced climatic variations around the world. Good for some, bad for others.

Answer 8

An increase in temperatures will affect air currents through the atmoshere. It will affect things like the jet stream in the U.S. and the Gulf stream, which is what keeps Europe warm. London is 400 miles north of Montreal. If the Gulf stream stops, or is redirected, all of Europe will become like Siberia. There are similar currents around the globe that certain regions rely on for warmth. I'm not sure about causing an Ice Age, but global warming doesn't mean it will be warmer everywhere.

Answer 9

Several decades of scientific research have yielded significant advances in understanding the ocean's role in regulating Earth's climate. Recently, increased media coverage of climate science has also highlighted some common misunderstandings about abrupt climate change, its underlying mechanisms, and possible consequences for society. This summary covers some of the major points about abrupt climate change that are often misunderstood. We hope this digest provides a better understanding of the state of scientific knowledge so far.

Q. Is the planet warming?
A. Yes. Since records began around 1860, globally-averaged surface temperatures have been rising (see figure "Variations of the Earth's Surface Temperature"). Eleven of the warmest years on record have occurred since 1990, and the five warmest of all have occurred in the last seven years (in descending order: 2002, 1998, 2003, 2001, 1997). Because of these recent extremes, the pace at which average global temperatures have been rising, which amounted to about +0.6°C over the past century, accelerated in the past two decades to an equivalent rate of +1.0°C per century.

Answer 10

Melting ice changes the salinity of the oceans. Fresh water is lighter than salt water. This changes sea currents. Right now Europe, especially UK and the Nordic countries, are warmed by the Atlantic drift current. Too much fresh water will destroy that current, thus bringing colder water and colder air to northern Europe. Ice age.