Fierce storms, howling winds and lashing rain? Global warming.
Calm sunny days, with gentle breezes and cloudless skies? Global warming.
Broiling heat? Global warming.
Freezing cold? Global warming.
Yep, you read that last one right:
Scientists have detected a weakening of key water currents in the Atlantic Ocean, raising fears of major ecological upheavals, including colder winters in northeastern Canada and Europe.
These currents, which continually move warm and cold water around the Atlantic, have slowed by 30 per cent since 1992, a drop unequalled since the last Ice Age, British researchers reported yesterday in the journal Nature.
If the trend continues, experts forecast that changes to the so-called Atlantic conveyor belt could trigger major environmental disruptions, including not only colder winters in parts of Canada and Europe but severe declines in the North Atlantic fisheries, droughts in India and sea levels rising as much as a metre along the eastern seaboard of North America.
Apparently the concept of natural climate change, despite mountains of scientific and historical evidence, escapes the comprehension of most journalists and politicians.
Ice ages and warm periods will happen, Kyoto accord or not, and it's foolish to think that man can change the climate at will, for good or ill, when he cannot even predict the weather accurately more than a couple of weeks in advance.
Who drove the SUVs when Vikings farmed the southern shores of Greenland? Who ran the oil refineries when Londoners held frost fairs on the frozen Thames?
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