New climate studies depict 'Day After Tomorrow' scenario: Gulf Stream shifts, sending chill through

[TexasTowelie]

WASHINGTON — Two new studies are adding to concerns about one of the most troubling scenarios for future climate change: the possibility that global warming could slow or shut down the Atlantic’s great ocean circulation systems, with dramatic implications for North America and Europe.

The research, by separate teams of scientists, including a team from Texas, bolsters predictions of disruptions to global ocean currents — such as the Gulf Stream — that transfer tropical warmth from the equator to northern latitudes, as well as a larger conveyor system that cycles colder water into the ocean’s depths. Both systems help ensure relatively mild conditions in parts of Northern Europe that would otherwise be much colder.

The papers offer insight into how rapidly melting Arctic ice could slow or even temporarily halt the ocean’s normal circulation, with possible effects ranging from plunging temperatures in northern latitudes to centuries-long droughts in Southeast Asia.

A fictional version of this scenario was depicted in the 2004 disaster film Day After Tomorrow, although most scientists believe the movie’s vision of ice sheets over New York and Europe are highly unlikely.

Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/local-news/20150907-new-climate-studies-depict-day-after-tomorrow-scenario-gulf-stream-shifts-sending-chill-through-europe.ece

[riversedge]

1. yes, science fiction does become reality...

well, lots of it does (need to work on the transporter concept from Star Trek yet).

[ellenrr]

2. it's not science fiction becoming reality

science fiction is what some author imagines.
what this article describes is what humans have done to the planet
due to an inability or unwillingness to imagine the consequences.

[roscoeroscoe]

3. Kim Stanley Robinson

Fifty Degrees Below

Not what we want to have happen

[Facility Inspector]

4. That's the message that needs to be imparted

Global warming doesn't mean it will get hot.

It comes down to basic hydrology.

Once the various jet streams start buckling and stay that way permanently, look out.

[gordianot]

5. While President Donald Trump removes the border wall with Mexico.

Much to the horror of Mexican citizens they find themselves invaded by the lowest criminals from north of the border in the form of real estate speculators willing to buy up and occupy the best land as the United States descends into chaos.

[paleotn]

6. The worry has been around for years....

of the conveyor slowing significantly due to freshening of the North Atlantic from glacial melt from the Greenland ice sheet. However, with the overall rise in ocean temperatures, we're more apt to get a repeat of The Little Ice Age for a time verses the Younger Dryas. Picture the Thames and New York harbor iced over regularly each winter as in the late 18 century. Disruptive shifts in climate globally will be bad enough, but no massive tsunamis followed by instant ice sheets. That only happens when you mix Hollywood silliness with a journalist's scientific ignorance.