That climate is a-changin'!
This is a real study published in Communications Earth & Environment that was conducted by researchers from the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS) and the University of California, San Diego.
Per the new findings, the at-risk current in question is the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation or AMOC, a 'conveyor belt of the ocean' that funnels warm water toward the ocean surface — from the tropics to the Northern Hemisphere.
This current, which includes the Gulf Stream that runs from the Gulf of Mexico to the US East Coast and across the Atlantic to Europe, helps maintain the mild climate of Europe, the UK, and the US East Coast.
The study stated that the source of this marine temperature regulator, the Greenland Ice sheet, is being thawed amid warming temperatures, causing meltwater runoff to leach into the North Atlantic — leading to stagnation.
The effect of the ice sheet warming is that it would cause the currents to slow, which would keep warmer water from reaching Europe.
Europe, especially northern countries like Iceland, the UK, and Norway, benefit massively from the current, which warms them significantly even though they are so far from the equator.
If the Gulf Stream slows, which the study says has been happening since the 1960s, Europe might get much colder winters and drier summers.
'Winters would be more typical of Arctic Canada and precipitation would decrease, also,' Jonathan Bamber, a professor of Earth observation at the University of Bristol, told the Daily Mail.
(I can hear the Canadians laughing from here).
Despite all the "maybes" involved in such research, the concern is significant enough that Iceland just declared the slowing of the current a national security risk, according to Reuters.
A potential collapse of AMOC could trigger a modern-day ice age, with winter temperatures across Northern Europe plummeting to new cold extremes, bringing far more snow and ice. The AMOC has collapsed in the past - notably before the last Ice Age that ended about 12,000 years ago.
'It is a direct threat to our national resilience and security,' Iceland Climate Minister Johann Pall Johannsson said by email.
Anyway, I'll be over here just enjoying life while the newest doomsday prediction sends the climate crazies into another round of unhinged frenzy.
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