Science Heating v Cooling

[rynnor]

Which would have the worse impact - a degree of cooling or a degree of heating on the average temperature in the world on the UK.

(I phrased it like that because a change that effects the global average by one degree might have a greater or lesser effect in the UK).

We are moving to a time with two competing theories that forecast future temperatures in different directions so the question could be important.

 

[Embattle]

Heating.

 

[Access Denied]

Cooling imo. Heating would likely cause real droughts (Not the media inflated shit we get atm) and a higher number of cases of heat-stroke and deaths of the young and elderly. It would also cause sea levels to raise and flood low-lying areas. However the basic infrastructure of industry would continue to function.

Cooling on the other hand would, in extreme cases, cause massive blizzards, huge snow drifts and the destruction of pipelines and such. It would also cause huge problems for transport. Industry would grind to a halt and loss of power/heating would cause the deaths of millions. Not to mention the famine caused by not being able to grow anything in ground buried under snow and ice for much of the year.

Like I said, extreme cases.

 

[Job]

Let me just run that on my laptop.
Hmmmm. ocean evaporation, cloud dissapation, several complete guesses, a random unknown factor, El Nino, yes fine.
Looks like it will...oh bolloxs, a butterfly flapped it's wings in Columbia.
Starts again...

 

[Gumbo]

Neither would have much impact, the Earths temperature changes all the time, always has, always will, we will adapt to whatever comes.

Of course that doesn't sell anything, or scare anyone, so it's not a popular opinion.

 

[Raven]

1 degree? neither.

 

[Shagrat]

Yep, we've had the thames frozen solid.with people skiing on it before when there was nothing like the insulation etc we have now and people survived. It's all blown out of proportions to sell newspapers/secure government grants

 

[cHodAX]

Heating, it enables us to grow a much wider variety of food whilst not compromising the things we already grow too much.

 

[rynnor]

I think its tough to judge - 1 degree globally could have a big effect on us if it changed our protective warming current.

The other problem is that small changes can have a suprisingly large effect.

The current theory is that Ice ages are caused by a slight irregularity in the earths orbit which would slightly decrease the amount of solar energy we receive (by a tiny amount maybe a percent or so which only converts to about a 1/10th of a degree temperature fall).

But over the years this leads to glaciers growing larger and larger until your looking at Km thick slabs of ice stretching out across the lands.

Still great for the winter sports fans