The study behind the climate of our planet is a very complex issue. You need to consider the fact that there is no hard and fast way of determining how the world’s weather is going to behave in the future; climatology involves the study of all layers of our atmosphere: atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere.
Scientific research in this regard is most prolific in countries like Canada, Norway and Russia where studies are monitoring the diminishing ice sheets that had been present around the North Pole for many thousands of years. In Canada especially, there are tremendous concerns over the fact that the ice is tending to retreat at a rate that is actually noticeable from one year to the next. This, in turn, is proving to have a knock-on impact on indigenous wildlife, e.g. on polar bears.
However, any climatologist should be able to tell you that it is not that simple. Where it may warm up in one area, other parts of the globe could see a cool-down and this is something that could be extremely pertinent to the British Isles.
At present, our country is artificially warmed through the Gulf Stream which has its origin all the way back to Antarctica. It is understood that the more the ice retreats in this area of the world, the less effective the Gulf Stream will become. The latitude of the UK is very far north and without the protection of the Gulf Stream, we should be very cold indeed.
Recent severe winters may actually prove that the Gulf Stream is just starting to lose its grip on our country. It will be important to see how things pan-out in the near future.