Why you should be very afraid of this map.

[Agartha]

Cold water from the melting Greenland Ice cap is causing the Gulf stream to slow down.


The Gulf Stream, which helps to prevent Britain from freezing over in winter, is now slowing down faster than at any time in the last millennium. A new study has revealed that the high levels of cold freshwater flowing into the Atlantic from the melting Greenland ice cap have slowed down the “engine” that drives the stream northwards.



As the Independent's science editor Steve Connor explains, because freshwater is lighter than saltwater, it tends to float on the surface of the ocean and has therefore affected the usual process which brings warm ocean water from the equator into the Atlantic’s northern reaches.



In fact, according to the study, published in the journal Nature Climate change, the North Atlantic is practically the only region on the planet to have witnessed an average cooling in temperature.



While 2014 was the hottest year on Earth since records began, the region in the sub-polar Atlantic witnessed its coldest ever. The subsequent slowing down of the Gulf Stream could be a “tipping point” for the Earth - “which, once set into motion, cannot be stopped”.



He points out that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates there is a 10 per cent chance of the Gulf Stream completely shutting down by 2100.This could have severe consequences for north-western Europe - including harsher winters and drought-prone summers - and could cause a knock-on effect on ocean currents the world over.



Meanwhile, Michael Mann of Pennsylvania State University, a co-author of the study, warns that current estimates of the possible changes to the Gulf Stream may not go far enough.



http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/cold-water-from-the-melting-greenland-ice-cap-is-causing-the-gulf-stream-to-slow-down--eJlW3xHhPAl

[Rockhopper]

Yep Ags. The changes in the Gulf Stream are the cause of the big Freeze in the nth east US and the big dry in California. It is shifting the jet stream patterns and not for the better.

Tim.

[Lenzabi]

See the function of global warming is that it melts the ice caps and glaciers, which in turn can do this. Climate Change is kind of accurate as the weather is disturbed and thrown out of wack.

California droughts have made it so that they have 1 yr of water supply left before they are bone dry. Droughts also lead to dust bowls and desertification. California already has parts to the Mojave as real estate, so I can imagine it growing bigger. Oh and the colder waters of the Atlantic may see a drop in Hurricanes, but the ones we get may be massive and out of control, the west coats is seeing them more, plus the Typhoons as you all call it in the rest of the world have also grown more intense and deadly.

humanity ought to have been doing more stringent pollution controls throughout the 1970s, more intense researching into solar and wind and other power generating that was truly clean and not lethal as Nuclear is via Thorium reactors(but wait, you can't make plutonium bombs from Thorium! )

So many things, all fought by the Regressivists who want no regulations even though they have proven in the past to help slow or stop problems, they want no birth control, nothing to stem the overpopulation of the planet, thus leading to more overfishing and habitat loss for animals as we make farms and cities for the extra folks, I mean smart people keep their families around 1-3 kids, then we get religious nutters trying to prove a point and spawning 10-20 kids a family that they can't feed w/o their church supporting them, but they want to out populate those who do not believe as they do.

Then the corporates who are psycho and must gobble all to sell their packaged product they mass produce like mad, food they have to charge for yet nations like the US where they hate making food free, throw millions of tons of food out per year.

So much we coulda-shoulda done, but years ago, decades ago, yet they decided that we had enough fossil fuels to just keep on chugging along as is, why worry now when our grandkids can figure it out?

Unless the figure out how to truly fix the eco-sphere, not just the weather, we will see Humanity gasping it's last before 2100.

[Agartha]

Very true sad wise words,Len. We live in a 'instant satisfaction' society and most don't care about their own kids and grankids future, as long as they can buy all the expensive useless stuff they want and wish they had a big butt like Kim K!

...I see it everyday.... people worry about shallow stuff that has no meaning.... living for the day without any consideration for the future or others...... sad.....

[Stirky]

The jet stream has been going really screwy for the past few years or so, that's why Britain has been battered by some unusual weather recently! It's all the jet streams fault.

[Rockhopper]

Yeah Stirkles. The changes have had an effect on western Europe.

In the Pacific we have the so-called el Nino and la Nina cycles and they are changing too. Normally the cold water from down south flows up to the Equator and cools the sea. That stops big, bad storms from developing. This year it didn't happen and Pam arrived.

The terms used are just local. Hurricanes (from the Carib= 'Wind that Breaks Trees'), typhoon (from the Canton Chinese 'Tai Fun'='Bad wind') and Cyclone (self explanatory).

Yes, the climate is changing.

Tim.

[Lenzabi]

And not a change for the better.

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