Reply [to “Comment on ‘Climate control requires a dam at the Strait of Gibraltar’”

Abstract

In regard to the role of Mediterranean outflow water increase in initiating the last ice age and the proposal to eliminate the threat of new glaciation by a partial dam at Gibraltar, Marotzke and Adcroft question the wisdom of publishing a hypothesis “not substantiated through quantitative reasoning supported by data.” A hypothesis meeting these two requirements would have to be indicated by a well‐established numerical model. By these standards, Alfred Wegener's “outlandish” continental drift hypothesis would never have been published, and the fascinating development of the Cretaceous‐Tertiary impact hypothesis for extinction would have remained hidden within a narrow segment of the scientific community for many years. However, the data supporting the hypothesis of ice‐age initiation [Johnson, 1997] are quite substantial, and all of the supporting data should be carefully considered before the hypothesis is rejected or accepted.