Britain, we are told, has just experienced its warmest spring quarter on record. Not because of hot, sunny days but because of fewer cool nights. This seems to be due to unusual jet stream behaviour and abnormal weather formations over the Atlantic. But could this be the herald of more ominous changes ahead?
The British Isles are nearer to the North Pole than our mild climate would suggest. What keeps our weather so mild and equable is the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic. Without it we would freeze in winter. However, about 30 years ago, some Danish observers noted that a regular ice formation south of Greenland was no longer forming in winter. It was suggested that this ice finger normally freezes out pure water, leaving the heavier brine to sink in the deep ocean. Over a vast area of the North Atlantic, this acts as a huge pump, helping to generate the Gulf Stream. Then, just last year, another team of Danish observers detected a slowing of the Gulf Stream.
Are we about to lose the phenomenon that prevents us freezing in winter?
There have been reports from deep underground temperature profiles which suggest that when the earth nears a maximum in its temperature cycle, North West Europe finds itself plunged into its own mini ice age, brought on by the failure of the Gulf Stream. Are we about to see this happen again? The Irish and North Seas frozen; the British Isles under deep snow for a good part of the year?
The creation of vast new ice and snow fields, in North West Europe, would reflect part of the sun’s energy back into space, changing the earth’s energy balance and perhaps leading to a cooling phase in the global energy cycle. The noted environmentalist, the late James Lovelock, postulated that the earth had its own mechanisms for correcting disturbances in its delicately balanced equilibrium, his Gaia Theory. Maybe we are about to see a dramatic manifestation of Lovelock’s theory.
Meanwhile, here in the UK, one has to ask what effect the mini-ice age would have on the British people. Will our Government be fully prepared for the shocks that await us? What would be the impact on food production and distribution? How would our transport systems cope? Would our energy supplies meet the new demand?
A fleet of nuclear power stations would certainly help!
Maybe our inclement weather and a frozen English Channel would finally solve the migrant boat crisis! Indeed, would there be a rush to emigrate these shores?
Plenty for our new Government to ponder!
Neville Chamberlain
[Physicist Neville Chamberlain was, for a decade, the CEO of the nuclear company BNFL, is a past Master of The Worshipful Company of Fuellers and is the current Chairman of Supporters Of Nuclear Energy (SONE).]