The Next North-European Ice Age
Global warning doesn’t just mean that the world will slowly get warmer. __16__The latest predictions are that northern Europe could even be thrown into an ice age. While areas of south-eastern Europe, such as Greece, would continue to get hotter and drier, Britain could find itself, in the winter months at least, surrounded by sea ice.
__17__This is one of the biggest expanses of ice in the world-around 1,500 Km long and 600 km wide .It is so big that if it all melted(融化). Sea levels would rise by 7 meters, Due to greenhouse gases, the Greenland ice sheet is melting at an alarming rate. __18__.
The link in the chain of events is what some call the Gulf Stream and others call the Atlantic Conveyor. This is the stream of warm water that comes up from Central America and flows across the Atlantic to northern Europe. This huge mass of warm water accounts for the relatively high temperatures enjoyed by Britain. __19__At its northernmost point it cools and sinks because the waters from warm areas has a higher salt content, making it heavier than the water near the Arctic. The cold water then flows south close to the ocean floor, back towards central and south America to complete the cycle.
__20_They have observed that the water flowing from the melting Greenland ice sheet is flowing into the path of the Gulf Stream. The water from the melted ice will stop the water in the Gulf Stream sinking in the north, thereby cutting off the deep southerly current, which, in turn, will cut off the northerly flow of warmer water. At that point the seas around Britain will begin to freeze.
A. Unfortunately, things are not so good.
B. The reason for this concerns the Greenland ice sheet.
C. It could cause certain areas to get colder.
D. Scientists begin to make predictions of an ice age in northern Europe.
E. Researchers in northern Europe don’t think global warming is a bad thing.
F. But how could it threaten to throw northern Europe into a new ice age?
G. It is transported across to Europe near the surface of the Atlantic.