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Frightening news from the Atlantic. No, I'm not referring to the just-ending hurricane season. Rather, the Gulf Stream -- that great oceanic conveyer belt that moderates Europe's climate by carrying warm tropical waters to the far north -- has weakened by roughly a third in the last 50 years, according to a new study appearing in the December 1 edition of the journal Nature. A slackening Gulf Stream has been predicted by computer models simulating a warming atmosphere due to greenhouse gases. Some of those models have projected a sharp and rather sudden plunge in European temperatures if the trend continues.
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Perhaps it's just because this was part of the premise for the movie The Day After Tomorrow, but this is darned scary.
What's even scarier is that it's a bit too easy to imagine the climate change wackos saying that this is proof that there is no "Global Warming" and that there are stupid enough people in the world to believe them. "How can there be global warming if it's getting colder in Europe?" Sigh...
Well, there's no denying that it's counterintuitive, this idea of warming possibly leading to an ice age. When you learn about the mechanics involved in slowing the Gulf Stream -- i.e., melting ice making the north sea fresher and thus less dense, etc. -- it makes more sense, but it's still a lot to get your mind around. In any case, it's exactly the kind of thing that has some folks arguing against the terminology "global warming" and for something more along the lines of "climate destabilization." What do you think?
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