I wonder whether what we are getting to is neither one or the other, but more a matter of chaotic weather.
I saw a story that in Scotland they are having the best snow season in ten years. But I think what is more disturbing is the news that climate scientists have found that there is a significant change in the salinity in the antarctic region and that this may have "profound effects on the earth's currents".
"So-called Antarctic bottom water helps power the great ocean conveyor belt, a system of currents spanning the Southern, Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans that shifts heat around the globe.
"The main reason we're paying attention to this is because it is one of the switches in the climate system and we need to know if we are about to flip that switch or not," said Rintoul of Australia's government-backed research arm the CSIRO.
"If that freshening trend continues for long enough, eventually the water near Antarctica would be too light, too buoyant to sink and that limb of the global-scale circulation would shut down," he said on Friday.
Cold, salty water also sinks to the depths in the far north Atlantic Ocean near Greenland and, together with the vast amount of water that sinks off Antarctica, this drives the ocean conveyor belt."
