On 22 Apr 2007 12:42:37 -0700, Cato wrote:

This theory of rapid climate change is called the “conveyor belt
theory,” and though many scientists do not yet agree with it, the
paleoclimate record found in ocean sediment cores is beginning to
support it. Recent paleoclimate studies have shown that when heat
circulation in the North Atlantic Ocean slowed in the past, the
climate changed in Northern Europe. Although the last ice age peaked
about 20,000 years ago, the warming trend was interrupted at various
points by cold spells. In a paper published in Nature on April 22,
2004, McManus and colleagues Roger Francois, Jeanne Gherardi, Lloyd
Keigwin and Susan Brown-Leger at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
and the Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’environnement in
France showed that cold periods in Europe 17,500 and 12,700 years ago
happened just after melting ice diluted the salty North Atlantic
water, and the ocean “conveyor belt” slowed. The evidence, which they
took from radioactive elements in ocean cores, is beginning to support
the theory, but McManus cautions that there are still pieces to fill
in before we fully understand what role the conveyor belt played in
past climate change and what role it might play in the future.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Stu...vidence_2.html