03/06/08: Okay

Go look at a diagram of the trade winds.

Those are mostly driven by something called ocean currents.

Ocean currents run on the principle of hot water rising, and cold water sinking. As the hot water of the equator rises, it needs somewhere to rise to, and look, there is the water to the north and south sinking, giving it some place to go.

The cold water, likewise heads towards the equator on the bottom end of this "Ocean conveyor."

It does this because hot water is less dense than cold water. This is because hot molecules have more energy, thus bounce around more and take up more space.

But there is a problem: Cold fresh water, because it doesn't have salt in it, is less dense than warm salt water.

Those ice-caps are made of fresh water. So when that water melts, it takes up the space that would be taken up by the warm water coming from the equator. In fact, the conveyor may even end up going into reverse if cold fresh water gets into the system fast enough and in large enough quantities.

This means that the warm water from the equator stops heading away from the equator, which means that some areas find the weather much colder, because they do not rely purely on the sun for their warmth, but on that nice warm equatorial water regulating the earth's heat.

This is why the projected future of England, which relies on a warm water current to remain reasonably temporate is that of a ice-cold hell.

Meanwhile the poles, are continuing to melt and the tempratures are continuing to get more extreme.

Or you could take the Religious Right's view, in which case "The weather is going crazy because they let gays on TV."

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