From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Feb 18 2003 - 07:29:50 MST
> Russell B Wrote:
> >This is a peripheral query so read no further if that bothers you.>
>
> >Okay, imagine a fairly full-on nuclear exchange causes a dark
> >nuclear winter of several months' duration. Imagine further that the
> >global climate thereafter tips over into something like ice-age
> >temperatures. I'm stuck with this scenario so I don't want debate
> >about its plausibility.
> >
> >IF it happened like this, what would the major tropical/equatorial
> >forests of places like Brazil look like after, say, 15-30 years?
Keep in mind that the earth's atmosphere is divided into bands much
like Jupiter's. Each band tends to have it's own climate range.
The equatorial regions would tend to retain the most heat the longest,
so while there may be die offs of animals who were too specialized,
keep in mind that any likely nuclear exchange would not involve both
hemispheres at the same time. Few people are that interested in
wrecking the infrastructure of Australia, Argentina, or South Africa.
If the north had a large nuclear exchange, this nuclear winter would
set up a wind system that would tend to isolate the north from the
equatorial regions such that the equatorial regions would only have the
southern hemisphere to dump it's heat into.
So, I can forsee the southern hemisphere getting hotter as the northern
hemisphere gets colder.
This might trigger the collapse of the Antarctic ice cap if it gets hot
enough (at least 10-15 degrees warmer).
> >Presumably they would die but a lot of the big trees would remain
> >standing. What sort of new vegetation could we expect to grow in
> >what waa left of these jungles? It is difficult to imagine that many
> >of the original animals would survive but some kind of animal
> >life...if only the proverbial cockroaches...might thrive. I'm not
> >even sure of what temperatures we would get in these regions.
> >Presumably they would be fairly mild even if the temperate zones
> >were now very cold, even in summer.
Monkeys and cats can live in many different climates, so I'd expect
them to live. Frogs and other cold blooded animals might have trouble.
I would expect any real climate change in the equator to be devastating
for those indigenous groups which are highly specialized for their
areas.
> >
> >Does anyone have the kind of expertise to have an informed idea on
> >these points?
Contact my cousin, Andrew Lorrey, at the University of Aukland, where
he is working on his doctorate in climatology, specifically with
regards to the El Nino/La Nina and North Atlantic Cycle phenomena.
=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
- Gen. John Stark
"Pacifists are Objectively Pro-Fascist." - George Orwell
"Treason doth never Prosper. What is the Reason?
For if it Prosper, none Dare call it Treason..." - Ovid
__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Shopping - Send Flowers for Valentine's Day
http://shopping.yahoo.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Tue Feb 18 2003 - 07:32:08 MST