A Mini Ice Age Means What?

If these climatologists are right we may be due for a mini ice age:

The bitter winter afflicting much of the Northern Hemisphere is only the start of a global trend towards cooler weather that is likely to last for 20 or 30 years, say some of the world’s most eminent climate scientists.

...The scientists’ predictions also undermine the standard climate computer models, which assert that the warming of the Earth since 1900 has been driven solely by man-made greenhouse gas emissions and will continue as long as carbon dioxide levels rise.

They say that their research shows that much of the warming was caused by oceanic cycles when they were in a ‘warm mode’ as opposed to the present ‘cold mode’.

So what does this mean?  Some possibilities:

(a) It's a vital reprieve giving us additional time to do things we should have been doing anyway.  For instance, rather than scrapping a perfectly useful coal-fired plant we can replace it at the end of its useful life with newer, greener technology not yet perfected.

(b) it's a head fake, and when the next mini-warming cycle starts in thirty years we will set heat records all over the world.

(c) it is the death knell for adequate public support for slapping a price on carbon emissions.  Is America, where two thirds of adults are overweight or obese, really going to spend twenty years on an energy diet while temperatures drop?  We aren't that good at taking the long view, especially when the science is in flux (Not related, yet related -  eventually the rise in autism, obesity, diabetes and other things will be linked to the rise in the use of sunscreen.  Yeah, because we listened to the scientists who told us that sunshine was dangerous.)

I am hoping for (a) but would bet on (c).  But in (c) I do would support a simple revenue neutral carbon tax, not the preposterous cap and trade that Dems are backing as a jobs program for an expanded AFSCME unionized government bureaucracy.

Comments

[daddy]

Speaking of wine, this is a sacrilage, as well as Alcohol abuse:

">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/6969148/British-Airways-cabin-crews-pour-vintage-wine-down-sink-in-protest-at-changes.html"> British Airways cabin crews pour vintage wine down sink in protest at changes.

"Disaffected British Airways cabin crew have resorted to pouring vintage wine down the sink on the plane ... in protest at what they claim is the airline's "disregard" for their working agreements."

Gosh danged unionized flight crews---they ought to all be shot.

[RussW]

Sorry, the Daily Mail article is reporting garbage science, and as a progressive (presumably, I haven't looked at the rest of your blog) you should know enough to check the quality of your sources before you write something.

[I see that 'classical liberal' is becoming as pejorative as 'conservative', or 'libertarian']

Dig into a liberal and turn up the velvet glove underground. Peel it and the adamantine fist of authoritarianism always beats within its heart.

Latif is caught in a contradiction. His admission that the oceanic oscillations have such importance inevitably diminishes the importance of CO2. Yet he still beats that drum and willing to sacrifice his skin for the head of it(he says if his name weren't Mojib Latif it would be Global Warming)

Give it up alarmists; the charade is at an end. Even my tire guy knew; "according to what leaked out", and he understood that the revelation would be good for the economy, without my prompting. That's the end, kiddoes. It's time to accept that the science is not settled and that the only safe policy attitude is skepticism of science and in particular, of the motives of the scientists.
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[BR]

For you...

[Dan]

"Mini Ice Age" - what hooey. Global warming is the wrong terminology. It's Climate Change. If enough glaciers melt, that changes the salinity of sea water - and shuts down the big current around the Atlantic ocean that circulates heat from the equator to the Northern latitudes. That will leave the polar region very cold and the equatorial region very hot - no moderation - but you can still have a higher average temperature overall. This crap scares me that the Atlantic heat pump is slowing down - if it stops altogether, it won't be pretty.

[BR]

The acidification of the oceans has already been spotted as the New World Order's next soggy excuse for an agenda. Are you a witting or unwitting carrier pigeon, Dan?

[BR]

You looking for trouble, you come to the right place!

[We do not know the effect of CO2, though we can be assured that it has been exaggerated lately.]

Very good, BR. Dan, what you are talking about is last year's concern a la mode. Glacier action is local and ice will accumulate worldwide if cooling deepens and persists. The acidity bit has also been exaggerated.
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[Rick Ballard]

Kim,

The CA timeline piece allows for the possibility that Jones himself had previously assembled the FOIA packet, left his RealClimate password in view and "left the office early on friday the 13th.". That would be rather exquisite.

[Hoist on own retard.]

Yup.
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[Slartibartfast]

If every scrap of ice in Antarctica, in the Arctic and Greenland melted, the salinity of ocean water would drop from 35000 ppm to just over 34000 ppm.

Tragic.

No, I think Dan is thinking that the salinity gradient would go away, which would happen if ice stopped melting. That's only going to happen if, as I said, every scrap of ice on both poles melts.

[Slartibartfast]

No, I think Dan is thinking that the salinity gradient would go away, which would happen if ice stopped melting.

Ok, that was completely wrong. What I meant was that you wouldn't have this freshwater runoff effect.

Still, sea-water has all kinds of salinity variation in it. I don't think that you can claim that changing the mean salinity by a few percent is going to seize up the whole planet somehow, without a lot of supporting evidence.

Lots of things could happen, in a world built of alarmist phantasy. The cold upper atmosphere air could sink like a rock and freeze the whole New England seaboard, freezing aircraft right out of the air!

[cathyf]

Yeah, slarti -- molecules are in constant motion, so there is a non-zero probability that all of the molecules in your chair could vibrate over to one side and dump your butt on the floor.

(I'd worry a bit more about getting hit by lightening and winning the lottery at the same time.)

[BR]

Hm hm hmmmmmm and I think that FOIA parcel was intended to be deep-sixed for later retrieval, instead
it got unzipped!

[BR]

Jones' Locker hijacked on the cyber seas!

[BR]

What's our next adventure?
South Southeast to Madagascar!

[BR]

Pirate's Party
Wine and Brandy