Vancouver Tornado
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An extraordinary world weather situation has developed, with
unusually harsh winter weather stretching from central Asia
across Europe and into North America, as well as flooding
across central Africa. At the same time that extreme cold is
taking place in Asia, unprecedented midwinter tornadoes have
struck western Canada and the U.S. Midwest, due to the
sudden appearance of
pockets of abnormally high temperatures.
There is growing
evidence that the unusual weather may be the harbinger of
even more severe climate change.
In part, these changes are believed due to the unexpectedly
rapid rise of carbon dioxide and methane in earth?s
atmosphere, but there is also concern that fresh water
flooding into the northern oceans is causing a generalized
weakening of ocean currents. It has been known for some time
that the Gulf Stream is weakening, and it could be that the
stage is now set for it to stop altogether, with dramatic
and dangerous consequences.
8,000 years ago, the current did stop, with the result that
the northern hemisphere was cooled by 14 degrees Fahrenheit
for over a hundred years. Cooling on this scale would have
an immediate and catastrophic effect on agriculture in the
northern hemisphere, and result in worldwide food shortages.
The current stopped 8,000 years ago because an ice dam in
Canada collapsed, causing an ancient lake to dump a hundred
thousand cubic kilometers of fresh water into the North
Atlantic. This resulted in the sudden collapse of the Gulf
Stream, with consequences, were they to happen now, would
result in millions of deaths worldwide from famine, and
extreme weather disruptions.
Melt of the north polar cap and the Greenland ice sheet
took place at unprecedented speed last summer, prompting
scientists to warn that the pole was likely to be ice-free
by the summer of 2012. Melt on this scale is flooding the
North Atlantic with far more fresh water than was generated
by the collapse of Lake Agassiz, but it is doing this
somewhat more slowly. Scientists have gone from saying that
Whitley Strieber and Art Bell?s ?Superstorm? and the film
?The Day After Tomorrow? were exaggerated, to warning that
the scenario is not so far from happening.
The study that resulted in the discovery that the Lake
Agassiz flood had caused the Gulf Stream to stop was carried
out by scientists from the University of Bergen in Norway.
They studied sediments on the floor of the Labrador Sea and
found changes that showed that temperatures plummeted when
the lake failed. The changes took place over a ten year
period, in climate conditions that were strikingly similar
to those we are experiencing today.
In Whitley Strieber?s book the Key,
published in 2001, the mysterious individual who Mr.
Strieber has called the Master of the Key, spoke extensively
about this danger. His warning led to the publication of
Superstorm and thus to the Day After Tomorrow.
Links:
African
flooding.
Asian
freeze.
Iranian
blizzards.
Vancouver
tornado.
European
storms.
Midwest
tornadoes.
Midwest
blizzards.
