Re: TV Dangers [was Re: metaTHAAD was: Son of Star Wars]

Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
02 Nov 1999 11:44:48 +0100

"Cynthia" <cyn386@flash.net> writes:

> It seems to me, that global warming would reduce hurricanes, not make them
> worse. My logic is this. Hurricanes are caused by temperature differences,
> and global warming would reduce temperature differences.

I think the main cause of hurricanes is that warm moist sea air rises, causing an inflow of surrounding air. The heat differential that supplies the energy is vertical, the difference between ground level and stratospheric air. The effects of global warming on this differential is definitely non-trivial.

> The colder the poles are, the more moisture they sucked out of the air. And
> if the polar regions became warmer, then the rainfall and cloud cover would
> increase. Causing the warm regions to become cooler.
>
> And with the cold regions becoming warmer, and the warm regions becoming
> cooler, the temperature differential that causes storms would be reduced.
> Therefore I would expect more mild temperate weather.

Also, higher temperatures -> more evaporation -> more cloud formation -> more sunlight reflected into space. But this effect will not be homogeneous across the planet...

I have seen this idea proposed before, and it just goes to show how tricky climate modelling is. You get a lot of highly nonlinear interactions; an increase in arctic temperatures would reduce the saline cold deep sea currents, possibly weakening the Gulf stream - which might either balance the situation, or cause oscillations leading to a new, likely unpleasant (to us Swedes) climate.

-- 
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Anders Sandberg                                      Towards Ascension!
asa@nada.kth.se                            http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/
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