PeteG

I think some people on here are confusing the Gulf Stream with the the Gulf Stream Drift/North Atlantic drift. As far as I know the Gulf Stream is the result of the NE and SE Trade Winds in the equatorial region pushing the surface water into the southern part of the Gulf of Mexico along the S American coast. This water has to go somewhere and escapes from the GoM between Florida and Cuba forming the Gulf Stream. This is unlikely to fail while the Trade Winds continue to blow although it could be interesting to speculate what might happen if sea level rises and large parts Florida are submerged. Once in the Atlantic the Gulf Stream dissipates and becomes the "Drift" which I imagine is influenced by the prevailing winds and other ocean currents. I seem to recall from my O Level geography days in the 1960's that in the Ice Age the Gulf Stream Drift went towards Spain but I don't recall seeing any evidence to support that although it seems a logical conclusion that it certainly didn't come this way.

There is an article in todays Guardian saying globally last month was the hottest June recorded. It also says that according to NOAA it was the 304th consecutive month with a combined global land and surface temperature above the 20th century average.

About 6 miles east of you. We have torrential rain and some thunder. Can't say I've seen any lightning but then I haven't been looking.

Temperature at 2 metres above ground I suspect.

[quote name='Dartmoor_Matt' date='15 February 2010 - 17:54 ' timestamp='1266256493' post='17755 I'm not going to go and dig out the information, I've read it already, but I'd of thought it was entirely plausible to have one winter with cold temperatures and then a cold summer and hey presto.

Unless maths has changed since I was at school (which was about 50 years ago i must admit) I would have thought 10% of 11400 is 1140. Interesting discussion in todays posts, I enjoyed reading them even if some of the debate is way beyond my science level.

And if you step out into the real world what do you find? A far as the UK is concerned the growing season has got longer, trees are breaking into leaf earlier ( up to 12 days earlier since the 1970's for some species),and some migrating birds are arriving earlier. Would seem to indicate that our corner of the globe has got warmer, I wonder why that might be?

You may think its common sense but I think you're wrong. There's a 50/50 chance of any one year being warmer or cooler than any other single year but the chances of it being the coolest or warmest on record have to be much lower than that. If there's 150 years of records what are the odds of a particular year being warmer (or colder) than any of the others, certainly not 50%.

Its like most things, in moderation they're OK but in excess may be harmful.

Old ice is actually pretty much as transparent as glass. I suspect it only looks blue for the same reason the sky looks blue.

I know the BBC are trying to recruit some older newscasters but to accuse them of dribbling does seem rather unfair. As we shan't know whether they're right or wrong for another 50 years or so I fail to see how they can be accused of talking drivel, for all we know it could be 100% accurate. It is unlikely to bother me unless I live to be at least 110 but those of you under 30 maybe ought to hope its wrong.

I'm using an imac and Firefox and if anything things are faster. As I'm 3 miles from the telephone exchange and get average download speeds of 200kbs at best I'm grateful for any increase in speed.

I have always understood that an ice sheet is a land based feature and I can't remember ever hearing the Arctic Ice Cap called an ice sheet. I assume that the article is referring to the Greenland ice and that on some of the islands north of the N American mainland in which case sea level affects and "newly exposed dark soil" would be reasonable statements.

Now if one thinks that 1000+C vents on a massive scale have negligible effect then I will just scratch my head a little. The heat and scale of these are immense and i believe that with the magnetic field fluctations and the tectonic plate movements that there is at least an imput into the extra heat from these vents. Also we have no idea how many there are but what we do know is that there are many many more and active down there than what researchers thought and more are being found. BFTP

Because it would be moving extremely fast and have a lot of kinetic energy.

The 1918 Flu Pandemic killed mainly young healthy adults because it caused an over-reaction of the body's immune system(called a cytokine storm apparently). With young adults having a strong immune system the result was the death of the young rather than the old. I think, although I'm not certain, that many died as a result of fluid filling their lungs.

If my Geography lessons back in the Ice Age (that's the early 1960's) were right the Gulf Stream is the outflow of water from the Gulf of Mexico between Florida and Cuba and is the result of the trade winds either side of the Equator pushing surface water westwards into the southern part of the Gulf, helped by the shape of S America. As long as the Trade Winds continue to blow all that water has got to go somewhere and the Gulf Stream will also continue. Whether the Gulf Stream Drift which is what warms W Europe stays put or ends up going somewhere else is another matter- according to my ancient textbooks in the (real) Ice Age it went to Spain and Portugal although I don't recall any evidence for this being given.

I've just had a look through some pictures and it might be one of the harvestman group. It looks a bit like a Dicranopalpus ramosus, at least thats the nearest I think.

It would certainly require some big holes to be dug. About 70% of the planet surface is water covered, or about 360 million sq km. Even allowing for some of this to be inland lakes, to lower the sea level by 1cm would need the removal of some 3500 cu km of sea water. That would fill a hole the size of the Black Sea to a depth of around 8 metres.