[fh] ice age instead?

G'day,

> > Has anyone any data?

A mini-ice age was thought to be the most likely consequence of human
pollution a couple of decades ago, though opinions on that one have obviously
changed now;)

> There was a reference posted on www.jerrypournelle.com a few weeks ago

There's been a fair few models studies on this one, Andreas down here has had
a pretty good look amongst others. There are a few links on this one,
some useful non-technical ones can be found at
http://naturalscience.com/ns/cover/cover5.html

and
www.cicero.uio.no/media/1270.pdf

If it were to happen Europe would probably get colder more severe winters, but
in the US its more likely just to counter balance the general temperature
rise. You're probably not going to see much of a general increase in ice cover
in the Western Atlantic and its probably not going to effect the Southern
hemisphere much at all ice cover wise (as far as I know but this is not my
primary field so it may be best to check that one yourself). As the process of
weakening the circulation system is a lot slower than the rising temperatures
(or so the models suggest so far), if anything does happen it isn't likely to
happen at all until about the time the KV take an interest in us...;)

Overall though climate change doesn't just equal everywhere gets hotter etc.
There will be wide spread redistribution of climate patterns (some storm bands
being pushed poleward), with the general trend being toward more severe
extremes in each season... at least that's what they thought last time I
talked to Andreas, its a pretty fast moving field though and the next Nature
article may well say something completely different;)

Cheers