how worried should i be?

[JakeR]

With the advancing threat of global warming, what effect will it have on me, will the summers get hotter? Colder? wetter? I like cold weather, what will happen to winter?

As a 17 yr old, what do you think i will see in climate change in my lifetime? Or are these questions un-answerable?

Cheers,

Jake

[tenbears10]

Jake

I am a geologist by training if not profession any more and what I have learnt is that there have been many fluctuations in climate since the earth was formed. I suppose that I'm not saying there won't be a change but that our influence will be small. The rate of change in geology is measured in tens of thousands of years so one life time is a blink of an eye. There is a great example that if you think of the history of the earth as a day from one minute past midnight through 24 hours then humans have been on the earth since about 11:56pm and are a very tiny part of that history.

If it is any consolation if climate change does affect Britain then the most likely situation is that the melting polar ice cap will turn off the gulf stream effectively making us much colder, so more winter not less. If you think that we are at the same latitude as southern Canada it is the gulf stream which keeps us warm here.

something to think about.

Bill

[JakeR]

Cheers Bill, i had an idea about the gulf stream and that we would get colder, but wasnt sure if this was true. Its good to hear an educated/accurate answer for once. So it is just my mind playing tricks on me that summers are getting warmer? Much appreciated.

Cheers,

Jake

[Martyn]

So it is just my mind playing tricks on me that summers are getting warmer? Much appreciated.

Cheers,

Jake

...should've been around in the late 70's Jake, the summers were blistering - 76 particulary sticks in my mind, serious water shortages (I mean like - "nothing" - comming out of the tap!).

To my mind, the summers are wetter and cooler and the winters are warmer (deep snowdrifts seem to be a thing of the past).

Have you seen "The Day After Tomorrow"? Absolutely ridiculous. Nothing "global" happens that fast. Though I think you are right in one respect, I think the human race is a transient form of life for the planet Earth. Nature has a way of correcting her mistakes, and in terms of the eco-system, humans are a devastating evolutionary fau-pas. But dont worry, it'll happen long after you and I are looking at the root end of the daisies. :wink:

[Kath]

Hey but don't forget guys just because it's unlikely something catastrophic will happen soon or suddenly, doesn't mean that we humans should be acting more responsibly ... :wink:

[ChrisKavanaugh]

Global Warming has been a politically charged issue for some time. What, how much and when are simply unpredictable. The consensus is that we have monkeyed with the system and something is happening. You may not see glaciers mowing down Stonehenge, but you will see change. We are actually in an interglaciation period anyway, so the guy trying to replicate mammoths better get busy.Human societies have always exploited the natural resource base to the maximum carrying capacity of population. Then we push the envelope just enough that any change causes cataclysmic collapse. The survivors regroup and create new cultural adaptations. Anasazi farmers become contemporary tribal police and Upper Paleolithic reindeer hunters on the tundra plains of France become waiters. Maybe we should start some multi generational networking so our children's children's children recognise each other meeting on the new land bridges.

[george]

Jake

I don't know the answer to your question mate - but just in case, if you're ever going to build a house don't build near a floodplain and make sure it's well insulated! :chill:

George

[Adi007]

And stock up on fuel ... coz you're surely gonna see the world after the oil's gone!

[jakunen]

Jake

I don't know the answer to your question mate - but just in case, if you're ever going to build a house don't build near a floodplain and make sure it's well insulated! :chill:

George

Wish the planners around my area had bothered to remember that!!!

[JakeR]

Cheers guys and gals. Very good info there. Martyn, interesting what you were saying, i could swear i have never seen a white christmas, yet people i know say they used to happen a lot more. I have one freak story though, i came back from south africa one year in april to find snow. Not just useless, rubbish, try-hard snow that usually melts as soon as it hits the streets of cardiff (thats another thing for me to moan at, Cardiff never sees snow, but everywhere else on the weather chart seems to in winter!). REAL snow, that settled and was about 2 inches deep. Any Cardiffians remember that?

Thats another thing, oil. Adi, whats the story with that? We may as well kill two very large birds with one stone.

Cheers all,

Jake

[MartiniDave]

I think what Adi is hinting at is that oail reserves are already dwindling.

I've told my stepson, aged 12, that the day will come when he will look back at his heroes, Jeremy Clarkson & Tiff Needell, and their antics on Top Gear and 5th Gear, and hate them for every gallon of fuel they wasted thrashing around in ridiculous sports cars.

Bring on the biodiesel!! :super:

Dave

[JakeR]

I thought that the problem was political rather than geographical.

[MarkG]

I think what Adi is hinting at is that oail reserves are already dwindling.

I've told my stepson, aged 12, that the day will come when he will look back at his heroes, Jeremy Clarkson & Tiff Needell, and their antics on Top Gear and 5th Gear, and hate them for every gallon of fuel they wasted thrashing around in ridiculous sports cars.

Bring on the biodiesel!! :super:

Dave

No give me the ridiculous sports cars

[MartiniDave]

You'll note I make an exception for Vicky Butler-Henderson :-P

There's room in my bivvy!

[JakeR]

[Kath]

Bring on the biodiesel!! :super:

Or the Air Car :super:

[BorderReiver]

Don't worry.You won't notice the changes as they happen gradually.
Global warming means more energy in the atmosphere;this leads to more extreme weather e.g. flooding(globaly),worse storms than usual,hotter summers in large land masses etc.

For the Gulf stream to shut off it would take all the ice in Northern Canada to melt at once and run into the ocean. :shock: If it got hot enough to do that our climate would stay the same(cool due to no GS,warm due to GW).

Petrol is only important because the multinational oil companies keep it that way.A far less poluting ,just as effective alternative will be found when they feel like it i.e.when their profits start to fall off.

[Adi007]

Take a look at this interesting theory:

http://dieoff.org/page125.htm