WVK Wrote:

> "Ocean circulation in North Atlantic is at its
> weakest for 1,500 years - and at levels that
> previously triggered a mini Ice Age, study
> warns":

Somewhere around here I've got tucked away a number of articles written back in the 60's and 70's on this very subject. The gist is that as the ice in the northern Atlantic region melts the fresh water makes the seawater less and less saline at the surface - which means that the seawater freezes sooner than it had previously. This then means that less and less super cold water sinks to the sea floor where cetripetal forces send it toward the equator, where this water rises up - thus fueling the Gulf Stream conveyor-belt. As the Gulf Stream current dies back due to this ice melt, the northern reaches cool. All ironically caused by a warming planet.

As I recall, there is something similar in the northern Pacific.

The ice ages, however, were/are triggered by cyclical nodalities in the Earth's orbital mechanics. We are at present, I believe, not in - or even near to being in - one of those nodal periods.