On 8 Jan, 12:52, brian whatcott wrote:
delboy wrote some questions, and asked for answers: I am glad to oblige:

We are having a very cold winter in the UK and Northern Europe (and so
I understand is North America). The whole of the UK is blanketed in
snow and gliding here has largely come to a halt. We also had a
relatively cold winter last year.

So the questions a

1) Are we entering another mini or maxi ice age?

No, unfortunately.

2) Is man made global warming/climate change a scam dreamed up by
unscrupulous politicians, so they can control and tax us more? They
fund the scientists who are trying to prove the case, but not the
sceptical ones.

Any major effect will find its entrepreneurs and con men.
The unscrupulous politicians of my knowledge have been very slow to pick
up on the long term warming trend. * * *Research meteorologists have
been slow too (IMO) to pick up on the greater variability that seems to
be going along with the trend.

3) Will sea levels rise when all the snow and ice on the UK eventually
melts (tongue in cheek question)?

Yes, but that melt will be hard to measure. Much easier, will be the
upcoming shelf slip and melt in the Antarctic.
* That will just take a stick planted in a tidal flow, anywhere.

4) If the cold winter is down to recent man made global warming/
climate change, we also had particularly cold winters in 1982,
1962/63, 1948, and during the mini ice age period in the 14th - 19th
century. What caused them? Prior to the mini ice age, the British
Isles were warm enough to be a noted wine growing area!

Derek Copeland

Dunno. That was then, and this is now.

Pleased to be of service.

Brian W

The amount of water currently tied up as snow and ice on the UK
landmass is almost negligible in the whole scheme of things, and in
any case the sea level after the thaw (assuming we get one) will be
the same as it was before.

The melting of polar sea ice would not have anything like the great
effect on sea levels that people seem to think it should. It is
slightly less dense than cold water, so floats on top, displacing its
own weight of water. The Earth's gravity keeps water (displaced or
otherwise) at the same level throughout the globe, give or take a bit
for tides caused by the gravity of the moon. Melting of the ice caps
on landmasses such as Greenland and Antartica would have a much more
significant effect.

Derek Copeland