New book out from Whitley Strieber and Art Bell (noted meteorologists??), to wit: a 'global superstorm' is brewing, which can be triggered suddenly, with so little warning that up to half or more of the world's population will be wiped out virtually overnight. Interesting book ! (large scale disaster speculatin is my hobby). Couple of brief quotes below for your reading pleasure:

It's building right now. 1998 was the most violent year in the history of weather, and ended as the hottest year ever recorded. According to a March 15, 1999, report, worldwide temperatures are rising much faster than expected. On July 18, 1999, temperatures in Moscow hit a record 91 degrees. Temperatures like that just 750 from the Arctic Circle are a dire warning: the superstorm could start any time.

What is will be like: Blizzard conditions. Sustained winds in excess of 100 miles per hour. Massive snowfalls. Death rates appraoching 100 percent beneath the interior of the storm. If it happens in the summer, massive flooding will occur. If it ignites during the winter, it will bring the dawn of a new ice age.

A climatological nightmare is upon us. It is almost certainly the most dangerous thing that has ever happened in our history. At that point, almost any violent change din climate will batter our civilization because it is so enormous and makes such a massive demand on the environment. Even the unthinkable could happen: our civilization could fall.

We believe that it comes on suddenly and that it is so destructive that it has the potential to end our civilization.

-- Count Vronsky (vronsky@anna.lit), December 11, 1999

Answers

Could this 'superstorm' be related to Art's alien buddies?

-- o (o@o.com), December 11, 1999.

I would guess the man who brought us November's death by meteor, Richard Hoagland, would have a hand in this book, too.

Bob

-- Bob (bob@bob.com), December 11, 1999.

Get real.

As in Y2K.

-- cody (cody@y2ksurvive.com), December 11, 1999.

cool!

-- bob lamboso (blambie@home.com), December 11, 1999.

An empty scare story from two people with ZERO credibility.

-- Irving (irvingf@myremarq.com), December 11, 1999.

I haven't seen the book, but there is some plausibility. Previous ice-ages purportedly have come on within the space of a very few years. Like the stock market, a flip-flop (electronic bi-stable multivibrator), an orgasm ... things build, apparently in a gradual manner, then all of sudden -- BOOM! -- and there is a state-change.

-- A (A@AisA.com), December 11, 1999.

Just wondering what the relationship is between global warming and the dawn of a NEW Ice Age?

-- Tommy Rogers (Been there@Just a Thought.com), December 11, 1999.

Hi Count Sounds like you should read what Nancy has to say from Zeta Talk. She talk's about the coming pole shift on Earth around 2003. Some people say the shift is slowly happening now, that is why you are hearing about more Earth Quakes through out the world today She moved from California to Wisconsin and has set up shop because it is a safer area

-- Otis (otis@sprynet.com), December 11, 1999.

just exactly does he supposedly know this?

-- More Dinty Moore (dac@ccrtc.com), December 11, 1999.

The climate is in constant flux. We in America have so little concept of history that it all seems like it never changes. The european climate changed dramaticaly for decades with temperatures 10 to 40 degrees colder than normal. The huddling of humanity from the cold is said to have enabled the plague to spread as rapidly as it did.

A massive warming or cooling cycle is not out of the question in the long term. And an apparent warming cycle may have absolutely nothing to do with pollution. I have read that all of mankind combined still spews forth fewer greenhouse gases than the top 1 or 2 active volcanos now.

-- tree (thetrees@bigfoot.com), December 11, 1999.

It's an old idea. There was a pseudo-science book written about this at least twenty years ago, and a mainstream scifi author (forget the name, but he wrote "Crystal World") built a novella around a worldwide wind storm. However, a localized version of this kind of storm might explain those mammoths that are flash-frozen into the Siberian tundra, some with fresh vegetation still in their mouths. The one that the scientists dug out a couple of months ago was found with green grass under its body.

-- Cash (cash@andcarry.com), December 11, 1999.

Tree: good post.

-- impala (impala@wild.com), December 11, 1999.

Hey loosers,

Hottest year on record. Big damn deal. We've only been keeping records for about 200 years (+or- 50 years). This passage of time is so insignificant, in terms of geologic history, that to even attempt to draw any conclusions from a years worth of data is laughable.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

-- 8 (8@8.com), December 11, 1999.

cash:

You're talking about J. G. Ballard. His story "The Voices of Time" is a classic. The book you're talking about is called The Wind From Nowhere.

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), December 11, 1999.

Tommy, the book acknowledges and attempts to explains the apparent contradition you have noted.

8, that would be "losers" I believe... By the way, if we can't attempt to draw any conclusions from incomplete data, science of any kind, indeed rational thought itself, will be impossible. (Not that this particular book is necessarily rational, though, ha ha ha!)

-- Count Vronsky (vronsky@anna.lit), December 11, 1999.

Gotta agree with 8. There is evidence that crops were once grown on areas of Greenland (I think, don't quote me please) where they cannot grow today by peoples who existed long before the age of fossil fuels. Anyone else read about this particular example? Cyclical patterns may have much more to do with warmings trends than do fossil fuels. Anyone heard of this theory?

-- o (o@o.com), December 11, 1999.

I believe Ruth Montgomery (?) wrote about the earth tilting on its axis. Her book is a good read for a stormy night.

-- Carol (glear@usa.net), December 11, 1999.

A few relevant tidbits from yesteryear. First, there were thriving agrarian settlements on Greenland around the year 986 AD. These colonies were founded by Eric the Red, adventurer and scoundrel. He set sail from Iceland only to discover Greenland and return with numerous settlers. The colonies (or settlements) were identified as Vesterbygd and Osterbygd, on the southwest flank of Greenland. The unfortunate folks who went to live there died out as the result of a trade embargo by the King of Norway around 1261. Scientific evidence from excavating the cemeteries suggests severe malnutrition brought on by the trade isolation (food shortages) as well as a possible severe change in the overall climate of Greenland.

Whew!

As for the author moving the upper Midwest because of a polar shift in 2003...well, FORGET IT! There was a guy about 20 years ago who wrote a lengthy text on Polar Shift and why it was imminent. Suffice to say he was wrong then and still is. Polar Shift is one of those wild, poppycock theories more suited to Sightings.com or the X-Files than in any legitimate discussion.

Just my two cents...

-- Irving (irvingf@myremarq.com), December 11, 1999.

Didn't anyone tell her that Wisconsin is going to lose power in January?

-- Squid (Itsdark@down.here), December 11, 1999.

It does sound plausible--ala Edgar Cayce and the idea of earth changes in general. Pretty obviously to the general unconscious is the fact that we are at the end times. Y2K may well be "just" the beginning.

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), December 11, 1999.

I don't like to speculate like this and personally I am not yet convinced of the validity of chemtrials (and I am now pleasantly intoxicated). ... BUT, hasn't it occured to anyone that these might be cloud seeding expirements to affect local/global climate, i.e. forestall/reverse global warming trends? I would consider this the most reasonable explanation considering the history of previous cloud seeding/weather modification attempts (if one accepts chem trails).

-- PD (PaulDMaher@att.worldnet.com), December 11, 1999.

The pole has shifted quite a few times previously. This is knon by the direction of Magnetic North, in rocks. The pole has shifted quite a bit over the last 50 years (I recall), and time wise, we are currrently "due" for it to reverse.

No big deal in terms of the earth - just us folks whove grown up here.

-- Gregg (g.abbott@starting-point.com), December 12, 1999.

Yup.

Polar shifts.

One is due.

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), December 12, 1999.

"large scale disaster speculatin is my hobby".

Some folks need to find new hobbies.

-- not a polly but (have@life.thanks), December 12, 1999.

5/5/2000 Ice: The Ultimate Disaster by Richard W. Noone talks about the planets being aligned with the earth for the first time in six thousand years. The author says the ice buildup at the South Pole will upset the earth's axis - sending trillions of tons of ice and water sweeping over the surface of our planet. Book was written in 1971.

-- Debi (LongTimeLurker@shy.com), December 12, 1999.

Zechariah Sitchin speculates that the "great flood" of the bible was due to south polar ice slipping off the continent, causing a big tidal wave which, funneled up the gulf, flooded mesopotamia (now Iraq and Iran, partially). And one of the gods (an alien, not "God") warned Noah beforehand and gave him specs for the building of the Ark.

Flood happened once, whether you believe the part about the god or not; could happen again. There probably wasn't a pole shift that time, though.

-- A (A@AisA.com), December 12, 1999.

Read "Genesis Revisited" by Sitchin, great book, tons of research. I've read several of his works.

* Y2K is Real
* Y2K is a subset of the millennium problem.

-- Dan G (earth_changes@hotmail.com), December 12, 1999.

If we cut through all the noise surrounding this book and the other works cited above, basically it seems there is reasonable evidence for a world-wide catastrophe in pre-historic times, and this disaster may be cyclical. The source of the problem is what seem to be in dispute, as well as the suddenness of its onset.

Various causes for the global disruption have been posited, including but not limited to periodic meteor strikes and pole shift.

It appears, from my reading of this new book (Superstorm) that we now have a new candidate, a storm of sudden onset, global scope, and unprecedented ferocity.

All these are simply candidate ideas. All have flaws. But the evidence of ancient disasters that must be accounted for remains.

-- Count Vronsky (vronsky@anna.lit), December 12, 1999.

Right now (Tues nite, 23:15) Art Bell, Strieber and Howe are talking about the book.

News item (right now!)
Record cyclone in NW Australia -- 185 mph winds
Record storm in northern Europe (precursor of new European ice age?)

-- A (A@AisA.com), December 15, 1999.

Just wondering what the relationship is between global warming and the dawn of a NEW Ice Age? -- Tommy Rogers

Here's the explanation as written for the non-scientific general reader in an Atlantic Monthly article by William H. Calvin.

http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/98jan/climate.htm

Of more interest to those of us with climatological background and interests are the links to the original scientific papers.

Tree "has read" that volcanoes produce more greenhouse gasses than industrial economies. Link please. Besides greenhouse gasses, volcanoes also produce particulates and sulphur which have a cooling effect on the climate. The coolest years in the last two decades imediately followed the eruption of Mt.Pinatubo.

Y2K is positively straightfoward and simple compared to the vagaries and variabilities of climate, its configurations, trends and behavior. Modern research recently has achieved an increased understanding of the Earth's climate -- particularly its history and mechanisms. If you're interested in discussing it in depth, drop me a line.

Hallyx

"We wait, breathlessly, for a Deus ex Machina, realizing only to late that our intelligence is a sword made of feathers and our faith but a gossamer shield for our vanity."

-- (Hallyx@aol.com), December 15, 1999.

"Tree "has read" that volcanoes produce more greenhouse gasses than industrial economies."

The difference is that volcanoes last for a few days a couple of times a year, whereas industrial economies have been pouring tons of crap into our atmosphere every day for the last couple hundred years.

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), December 15, 1999.

Hallyx:

Gossamer and feathers. How true.

We find interesting clues by looking back in time at the history of the earth. But the further we look back, the dimmer is our vision.

One thing that seems to stand out, at least for the past 100 million years or so, is that the 'normal' state of the earth is cooler, what we call 'Ice Ages.' The interglacial, or warmer periods, such as we enjoy presently, occur infrequently, and are of relatively short duration. The ratio of cold time to warm time is something on the order of 10 : 1. Another interesting fact which we have recently observed/recognized is that the transitions between warm and cold periods are much more rapid than we previously thought. Ice-core drilling in both Greenland and Antarctica, along with other geological evidence indicate that these transitions are (geologically speaking) instantaneous. Of course, the mechanics of the situation (causes) are a topic of hot debate, and are poorly understood.

For humans, dramatic instantaneous climatic change (if you are in the vicinity) = catastrophy.

We should all hope that it stays warm for a little while longer. Ice ages will probably return soon enough.

Gods

-- Pinkrock (aphotonboy@aol.com), December 15, 1999.