Less Sea Ice Means Colder Winters? What?

As we all know, climate change will doom us all to centuries of awful weather and Fox News denials of climate science, even as a combination typhoon/tsunami/earthquake rips their studio apart and plunges it deep into the bowels of the Earth.

But what’s exciting is the new and varied ways climate change will screw us. Like, for example, the really cold parts of the world losing all their ice…and suddenly making slightly southern parts way, way colder.

It’s like this: currently sea ice reflects solar radiation. If we increase the heat of the Earth, it melts the ice, leaving sea water. Which is black, meaning it sucks up solar radiation, and gives the already chilled peoples of the upper Northern Hemisphere one heck of a frozen wedgie, even as it dumps more heat into the atmosphere to speed up the process. You’d think maybe some ice would form or something, but the answer to that from Gaia is apparently “F*** you and your ice.”

Oh, and this will also trigger “Arctic oscillations” in wind patterns. Like the one that gave Europe record cold weather this year, killing hundreds. Sleep tight!

[ via New Scientist ]

image via ItzaFineDay on Flickr

×