Abrupt Climatic Change Coming Soon?

rRaAnNiI writes "Just read an extremely interesting article about the possibility of having a 'little ice age' quite soon - within a decade. The frightening thing is that it makes a lot of sense to me. Does anyone know how to build an igloo?"

Does anyone know how to build an igloo?

[dJCL]

Yes, they work great. Being a Canadian, we live throu all extreems of weather, it gets above 40 C and below -40 C where i live, so a little colder just means we have to cuddle up with the women some more.

News Flash - Mini Ice Age Coming to North America

[Anonymous Coward]

The mini ice age is expected to arrive within the next 3 months. But, don't panic. It's a mini ice age and is only expected to last for, perhaps, 4 months.

My Athlons won' t melt!

[Bloody Bastard]

Good for overclockers, bad to cooler makers =)

Re:Does anyone know how to build an igloo?

[commodoresloat]

a little colder just means we have to cuddle up with the women some more.

But this is slashdot. I suppose we could cuddle up with the stuffed penguins instead.

Ice Age?

[grumpygrodyguy]

Does anyone know how to build an igloo?

I'm still living in my igloo, is Y2K over yet?

Re: "Abrupt Climatic Change Coming Soon?"

[guttentag]

Yeah, at the staff meeting on Thursday. They say we're looking at fire, brimstone, and a 60% chance of efficiency experts. Didn't you get that memo?

Re:News Flash - Mini Ice Age Coming to North Ameri

[TibbonZero]

It seems that these mini ice ages happen once every 1/2 cycle around the sun, switching hemispheres... They have been suspecting that the cause is a fat man with a red suit for the northern hemisphere, but are still unclear as to the cause of the southern yearly iceage...

hmph!

[digidave]

Where are those global warming nutcases now? Methinks they'll be very quit until the ice age ends, then get all worked up about the ice sheet over Calgary thinning.

Re:the US will live up to its responsibility, righ

[Anonymous Coward]

Apparently you haven't read the "Act of God" clause in the contract.

Re: "Abrupt Climatic Change Coming Soon?"

[jacksoncannery]

I HAVE THE MEMO.

Re:Does anyone know how to build an igloo?

[Anonymous Coward]

www.grandshelters.com

Woohoo!

[Dark Lord Seth]

This is actually good news, at least now we can hold another "Elfstedentocht" again here in the Netherlands. Then again, having -20 degrees celcius all year round might not be as fun as it seems, though it would rock for once to have said "Elfstedentocht" in July... ^_^

Then again, I was expecting global warming which would place my town right next to the sea. I already had a burger stall planned out to make money on the German tourists... :(

FATBASTARD CAUSES GLOBAL CHILL....

[Anonymous Coward]

Kyoto bans red suits. News at 11.

Re:Year without a summer

[feelsinister]

In 1816, there was no summer. Volcanic side effects from the year before blotted out enough light to cause a winterry year.

...and the UK has been stuck in a permanent winter ever since.

Yawn....

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, right. These guys can't even forecast the weather a month from now! Heck, they can't even figure out where a hurricane is going to end up.

Just wait a darn minute!

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought I was supposed to be telling my grandchildren that I had to walk to school uphill both ways in a snowstorm... not the other way around!

Re:the US will live up to its responsibility, righ

[bobwoodard]

Damn, now I'm confused. I thought we were to blame for global warming? How am I supposed to feel guilty, if I can't keep track what I'm guily of? Oh, that's right, it doesn't really matter does it?

Re:Why build and igloo?

[quacking duck]

You can buy mine on ebay. Some assembly required, no insurance provided against water damage to shipping boxes.

Two ways

[mc6809e]

So now we have two ways to prove that CO2 is affecting the climate of the Earth:

The Earth's climate is getting warmer.

The Earth's climate is getting cooler.

Whichever we see, we know it was the fault of CO2, right?

Once in a million years, fate conspires against us

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

If only Compaq hadn't EOL'd the Vax, we might have easily laughed off a puny 10 degree drop in avg winter temperatures. Is it any wonder southern California is a desert? You youngin's might not be aware of it, but 50 years ago it was a tropical paradise. About that time, California universities and colleges started ordering various DEC computers, and the damage was soon irreversible.

I kid you not, last year NASA published an article claiming that from the years 1976-1984, that side of the planet actually heated the sun, not the other way around.

Our only chance, is to pull as many MicroVaxen as we can out of retirement/storage, and strategically place them throughout the North Atlantic. If we start soon, maybe we can end this ice age before it even begins!

Consider the CPU temperature poll

[CodeWheeney]

See, now you don't want those CPUs running so cool, do you? Gonna use my box as a foot warmer.

Re:History Lesson

[dirkdidit]

Day....light? What is this mysterious light that you speak of? What color is it? What does it taste like? I do not believe I have experienced such a thing before.

At last!!

[Jucius Maximus]

Finally, there will be salvation for the Canadian National Igloo [tvguidelive.com]!! I have been so worried about it melting due to global warming!

Re:Does anyone know how to build an igloo?

[jareth780]

I remember watching videos on how to build igloos in elementary school. They're pretty easy, actually!

1. Make sure the snow is really hard on top, and at least 4' deep. Make sure you're wearing your snow-shoes or you'll fall through!
2. Use a long, thin, "snow-cutting" saw to cut the snow into curved-rectangular blocks.
3. Starting at the base, line the outside of the igloo with the blocks, being sure to leave room for a doorway. You'd be surprised how many hosers forget this!
4. After each layer, have a beer. This only works if you drink Canadian beer. That's MOLSON Canadian, not that "Canadian budweiser" crap. You can rest your beer on the ice blocks to keep it cold.
5. As you get to the top and can no longer reach high enough to put any more blocks up, just give up. Who needs an entire igloo anyway? That can be your "breathing hole".
6. It'll still be freezing, because this is Canada, after all. Build a fire inside your igloo.
7. If your hole isn't big enough, some of the ice on top will melt. This is normal. If your entire igloo melts, it's too warm for igloos right now. Wait until igloo season.
8. Since there's no power outlet, you won't be able to watch Hockey Night in Canada in your igloo. Go back to your house and watch it there.

This is what I can remember from grade 3, so don't quote me on anything.

Re:History Lesson

[Verne]

It's caused by a huge nuclear ball in the sky. This ball has such intense radiation that it physically burns your skin if you are in direct exposure to it.

Kinda like a big cellphone, cept the radiation actually does hurt you...

Abrupt Climatic Change Coming Soon?

[SuperKendall]

Yes, I believe it is called Winter.

Sheesh, the things that mkae headlines nowadays.

Re:Not as extreme as headline may imply

[hazem]

Humans are much more adaptable to climate change than most other plants and animals. But with 6 billion+ mouths to feed, its not quite clear how we'd adapt to a climatic problem of this kind of scale.

Can anyone say "soilent green"?

I also hear insects can be quite tasty..

Re:Two ways

[Chris Johnson]

It's very simple, really.

(1) CO2 causes global warming. Suppose that's happening, then-

(2) ice cap melting: Huge amounts of fresh water dump into the oceans. That IS happening- it's been observed. So-

(3) fresh water disrupts the ocean's convection currents, as is being reported here. At which point-

(4) Ice age. At least you get your ice cap back- at least in some places maybe! The energy in the system is still elevated, but now you have a dramatically different climate picture- and that is how you get 'warming' and 'cooling' at the same time. At which point-

(5) "Whoa." The global climate goes completely chaotic, with the oceans no longer in a metastable state, and the energy from the warming producing wild variations in local weather patterns. It may stabilize at some point. It may not. Chaos means you can predict the general range of behavior, more or less, but you can't predict it literally.

(6) Invest in emergency rescue technology for weather catastrophes. Mother Nature is about to kick our ASS, and we've nobody to blame but ourselves- and our bad luck to be doing what we do at the time we're doing it. Things would probably be getting nasty even in Greenpeace-eco-treehugger-world, but that's not the world we live in, and the difference means that things will get UGLY.

Re:Does anyone know how to build an igloo?

[dadragon]

-40C? Is that as cold as -40F?

Yes.

Yeah right...

[Anonymous Coward]

They can't accurately predict the weather 2 days in advance. Like I'm really going to worry about an Ice Age prediction within the next 10 yeras.

Who'll give me some odds...

[Hott of the World]

...on abrupt and extensive climate change say, August of 2012????

Of course, that's just a rough estimate based on made-up evidence with a full support of studies that were conducted entirely within my head.

Penguins

[Pac]

but are still unclear as to the cause of the southern yearly iceage

Thousands upon thousands of penguins living in the southern polar cap. They constantly inhale and exhale the cold air there. Every time they exhale, the air move a little bit north (as everyone of them is always facing north). After some months the whole polar air mass is above the southern continents and it takes another three months for the tropical heath to disperse it. At the same time the penguins are hibernating. Then the penguins wake up and start moving the air again.

An international consortium formed by Autralian, Brazilian and South African tourist industry representatives have a project to kill all penguins (bringing an ethernal summer to the region), but they are being prevented from implementing it by the Greenpeace and a bunch of Linux zealots.

Ice Age Stories - A Conspiracy.

[Anonymous Coward]

mini ice age stories are cooked up by clothing manufacturers to sell warm, winter clothes. Everybody's been roasting all summer long, and we are sick and tired of it. Air conditioning only in a few small spots here and there, mostly not where we are at the moment. These stories date back to "almanac" predictions of colder weather in a few years, which are based on junk science, or no science at all. How can all this be true? OK, lets see a "mini ice age" prediction surface at the BEGINNING of summer, when everyone is sick and tired of freezing to death all winter long.
You can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time.

Global Warming causes Global Ice Age

[Anonymous Coward]

which sucks up fresh water back into the glaciers, which build up causing warming, which then makes them melt again, causing another Ice Age. Sounds a bit like a two-cycle engine on the old John Deere tractor. In any case, farmers will adjust crops, and my $175 per month for 6 months airconditioning bill and $5 per month for heating 3 months here in Florida may switch and leave me with some mighty profitable acerage when all the snowbirdies flock south on I75 and I95. All I need is an "All the orange juice you can drink for a quarter" sign. That'll be pay back for the Yankees blaming all of Florida for 2 pissant counties run by Damnocrats for screwed up elections.

Oh Come On... It Can't Have Taken THIS Long....

[lysurgon]

1. Make sure the snow is really hard on top, and at least 4' deep. Make sure you're wearing your snow-shoes or you'll fall through!
2. Use a long, thin, "snow-cutting" saw to cut the snow into curved-rectangular blocks.
3. Starting at the base, line the outside of the igloo with the blocks, being sure to leave room for a doorway. You'd be surprised how many hosers forget this!
4. After each layer, have a beer. This only works if you drink Canadian beer. That's MOLSON Canadian, not that "Canadian budweiser" crap. You can rest your beer on the ice blocks to keep it cold.
5. As you get to the top and can no longer reach high enough to put any more blocks up, just give up. Who needs an entire igloo anyway? That can be your "breathing hole".
6. It'll still be freezing, because this is Canada, after all. Build a fire inside your igloo.
7. If your hole isn't big enough, some of the ice on top will melt. This is normal. If your entire igloo melts, it's too warm for igloos right now. Wait until igloo season.
8. Since there's no power outlet, you won't be able to watch Hockey Night in Canada in your igloo. Go back to your house and watch it there.

9. ???
10. Profit!