Mother nature does a spot of conservation...

I find that very interesting sandman (nice one) I think the bigger question would be is the gulf stream steadily shifting and if so how fast and what would the consequences be...Lazy

here's an interesting thought for you about the gulf stream:

if the water stays getting warmer(which it is, slowly) the polar ice will melt quicker which is fresh water being released into the gulf cycle.. (warm water on the surface goes north cold water runs deeper going south)

when the stream hits the colder polar water it is heavier(due to the salt and being cooler)it sinks to the depths ans it in the southern stream to the gulf where it heats up..this completes the cycle..

not with the polar ice melting this is adding more fresh water to the cycle which in the long run will push the area of where the salt water sinks further south.. which in turn will stall the gulf stream cycle.. and when that happens you can say hello to the next ice age..

and with the earth being more than a few million years old this is not the first or last time this will happen... as it is the planet is due another ice age in the coming millennia.. so is it really global warming.. or is it just a cycle that has been happening since the earth took shape ????

so is it really global warming.. or is it just a cycle that has been happening since the earth took shape ????

I think the data from ice cores (millenia), sediments (hundreds pf millenia), tree rings (centuries) and fossil data (aeons) shows that global warming is not a new phenomenon, but the rate of warming over the last few decades (which started with the industrial revolution, and has accelerated more recently) is far in excess of anything that happened before. Look at the latest report on the Arctic ice sheet retreat [url]http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,1341869,00.html[/url].
While melting may release more fresh water into the North Atlantic and divert or even disrupt the Gulf Stream, the overall effect would be increased warming of the earth, not another ice age. It would certainly affect the climate of Northern Europe and make our winters a lot harsher, but the loss of ice means less heat being reflected back into space and more heat being absorbed by the ocean. It is quite possible Ireland could become colder while the rest of the world gets hotter...
So we could be fishing for trigger fish and bream or cod and halibut, depending on the outcome...