Gulf Stream at risk from Climate Change
Part of the ‘Global Ocean Conveyor Belt’, a series of giant ocean currents that flow around the earth, the Gulf stream carries vast quantities of warm Atlantic water northward giving Europe and parts of North America a temperate climate. The amount of heat involved is phenomenal, estimated by Stephen Rahmstorf, an oceanographer at Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, as equivalent to one million powerplants.
Without the Gulf stream, Northern Europe would be hardly habitable, certainly not by the present dense population.
The Gulf stream is powered by the weight of the dense, salty water of the northern part of the current which sinks, pulling the current behind it. Scientists are extremely worried that fresh water pouring into the northern ocean from melting glaciers will mix with the salt water of the current making it lighter and unable to sink. It is disturbing that from measurements taken in the last few years there is already a decline in the vigour of the circulation and studies indicate that unlike other climate changes, ocean currents can shift or stop in just a few years.
The effects of such a shut-down would push Northern Europe into semi-Arctic weather conditions, a change so profound that most people don’t even want to think about it.
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Working Paper 72:
Does tomorrow ever come? Disaster narrative and public perceptions of climate change, Thomas Lowe, Katrina Brown, Suraje Dessai, Miguel de Franca Doria, Kat Haynes, and Katharine Vincent, Tyndall Centre, March 2005 7
This paper specifically researches the impact on public perception of the disaster movie, “The Day After Tomorrow”, based upon a supposed breakdown of the Thermo-Haline Circulation. There was also a promotional piece on the Met Office web site entitled “Science meets Hollywood”: “The Day After Tomorrow”8, with a subsection entitled “Will We Freeze?”
The Tyndall researchers make the point that it is an extremely unlikely event as evidenced by these comments:
· expert elicitation on abrupt climate change undertaken by Arnell et al. (2004) found that several experts declined to respond because they felt the science was too uncertain and that subjective judgements would not be appropriate.
· Thus, there exists no globally accepted consensus on the likelihood or extent of rapid climate change and agreement among scientists and policy makers over the ‘danger’ posed by abrupt changes in the climate system appears unlikely. Little information exists on lay belief and understanding of the subject.
No further comment is needed
Maybe it would help to ponder that these events have happened before, so they are not just theoretical. Granted, it’s not a frequent event. So essentially each generation is playing a colossal game of Russian Roulette. That should make people feel better.
recently, there has been some massive flooding in the Philippines and Vietnam which i think is also due to Climate Change. the tropical storms in asia are somewhat getting stronger stronger each year.
- Climate Change made the typhoons in the south pacific very destructive. Typhoon Ketsana made a lot of mess in Philippines and Vietnam