clipped from: www.abc.net.au   
A new study from the Australian National University (ANU) has found that this country may not be as severely affected by a new ice age as countries in the Northern Hemisphere.

"There are some fears that warming in the Northern Hemisphere, particularly around the Greenland ice sheet, might cause quite a bit of meltwater to come into the North Atlantic Ocean," he said.

"That might change the salinity of the water there and stop what's called 'the great conveyor belt of the oceans' forming deep water that releases an enormous amount of heat that keeps Europe out of an ice age, essentially.

"So if global warming does stop this circulation from occurring, then we could potentially have a new ice age in Europe."

He says that finding lends support to a theory that heat will accumulate in the Southern Hemisphere if there is cooling in the north.

supports a theory called the bipolar seesaw, which has to do with where heat goes on the planet when the conveyor belt is operating or not operating,"