It has plagued scientists and politicians for decades, but scientists now say global warming is not the problem.
We are actually heading for the next Ice Age, they claim.
British and Canadian experts warned the big freeze could bury the east of Britain in 6,000ft of ice.
A taste of the future: Plunging temperatures around Britain created dramatic 2-ft icicles over Sleightholme River in County Durham
Most of Scotland, Northern Ireland and England could be covered in 3,000ft-thick ice fields.
The expanses could reach 6,000ft from Aberdeen to Kent – towering above Ben Nevis, Britain’s tallest mountain.
And what’s more, the experts blame the global change on falling – rather than climbing – levels of greenhouse gases.
Lead author Thomas Crowley from the University of Edinburgh and Canadian colleague William Hyde say that currently vilified greenhouse gases – such as carbon dioxide – could actually be the key to averting the chill.
The warning, published in the authoritative journal Nature, is based on records of tiny marine fossils and the earth’s shifting orbit.
The Big chill: Experts warn that 3,000ft ice sheets could cover most of Britain
The Earth has seen dramatic climate fluctuations – veering between cold and warm extremes – over the past three million years, the researchers say.
And changes in the Earth’s orbit and slowly falling levels of carbon dioxide are the cause.
The team says we are approaching a turning point, in the next 10,000 to 100,000 years, which will lead to the new ice sheets smothering much of Europe, Asia and South America.
The theory, which is based on computer models, suggests ice sheets will also slash sea levels by up to 300m, so Russia and Alaska will be connected by land.
The North Sea will become part of a huge glacier stretching from Holland and Scandinavia to the Russian Far East.
Stark: Computer modelling suggests ‘a rapid transition into the glacial state,’ the researchers say
Professor Crowley said the stark findings do not mean we should stop fighting warming.
But he urged: ‘Don’t push the panic button.’
‘There’s no excuse for saying “we’ve got to keep pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,”‘ he told Reuters.
‘Geologically it’s tomorrow, but we have lots of time to argue about the appropriate level of greenhouse gases.’
By Cher Thornhill
Last updated at 5:06 PM on 13th November 2008
Source: Daily Mail
:-). Don’tcha just love it.. Here we are worrying about “Global Warming” and we will be Blind Sided by a “Big Freeze”.
All the little pictures make a big picture and all most people is see a Gallery of little pictures. Step back and look at the Big Picture and you will have a better idea of what is actually happening about you..
Sun Spot activity over the past 12 months is fast approaching the activity of the 1600’s. Europe past through a Mini Ice Age in the time. Are we going there again or something greater. The Sun has been cooling for some time now and has taken time to manifest itself as a Spotless Face. The longer it continues the Deeper and Longer it will take us into an Ice Age of some sort. Time will only tell us how long.
RW
It’s been said before, but if you look at Al Gore’s CO2/temperature graph ( and you only see it as a background to his harangue) you will see that, crucially, temperature increase precedes CO2 increase, ie the world is warming up and causing CO2 levels to rise in response. The solubility of CO2 in the oceans is inversely proportional to their temperature; as they warm ( due to increases in solar activity ) they are less able to keep CO2 in solution. So CO2 increase is a symptom of global warming, not its cause.