Will this mean we get bad winters and summers now?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8538060.stm

Luxembourg isn't all that big – you can drive across it in about 25 minutes.

Would you worry about an iceberg the size of Co Durham?

Nope, thought not. Just hype and hyperbole.

Well, maybe… 🙂

I used a course of antibiotics.

I don't get it. Ice has stopped more ice producing cold water? I'd love to have the detail explained a bit more!

Interesting this, if this knocks on to affect the atlantic conveyor (though I'm not sure I fully understand why, I thought Arctic meltwater was weakening that anyway) then what is often termed the "Gulf Stream" that keeps us warm will stop. Then who knows, we could have a similar climate to Norway. This has happened before and the change can be very rapid, years not centuries.

Lets face it, climatic change whatever the cause is a given now, this century is going to be a great big experiment and we are all part of it. I'm going to pull up a chair with tea and biccies and watch with interest! Nothing else to be done.

Lets face it, climatic change whatever the cause is a given now, this century is going to be a great big experiment and we are all part of it

yep, it's going to be a fun ride 🙂

Last time the gulf wasn't so strong we had things like the Mersey frozen right across so you could walk from liverpool to birkenhead, my parents remember it well. They also had smashing summers. These days those are both causes for moaning. While climate change isn't great and we should be working against it if possible, I'm not sure it requires quite the level of whinging and ineptitude that we see when it gets a bit snowy (not suggestign weather is climate, BTW, but suggesting weather more like we have seen this year may become more apparent).

So if the UK winters do end up getting a lot colder how much of Europe would this affect? Would Spain be OK?

I read that, what a load of bollocks

Thanks mike_p, so you say I can rest easy now?

Is that the wrong article? I dont see any hyperbole or hype?

can we stop hainey seeing this thread?

if it even is a problem.

nothing.

HTH

all the article says is that marine life in the area will be affected.

sounds logical – iceberg blocks out sunlight = less plant life / algae = less animal life.

mike, i don't see any suggestion of b0ll0cks.

for the record, bottom water is formed by a combination of evaporation and cooling. water becomes more saline and colder, therefore becoming denser than the surrounding waters it sinks.

the iceberg could block the areas that this happens in but then equally leaves a hole where it was….

By the way, CK, as I understood it the cold winters of the 60s were to do with the Artic Oscillation rather than the gulf stream as such.

The Gulf stream keeps us unnaturally warm and wet. If it goes we are likely to end up with a climate that is more similar to parts of North America and inland Europe, i.e. colder winters and sunny, drier summers. Sounds good to me.

Not sure what would happen to Spain, most other countries in Europe will be less affected.

Well the answer is obvious – we still have Trident don't we?

proper winters AND proper summers!! sounds like a winner to me, be a good excuse to by a pumped up snow mobile for the winter (If the winters do turn out like North America) and do even more biking in the summer!!