Nice video – check the animation that starts about 1 minute in, and stay on for the recap of potential impacts on the Eastern US toward the end.
Nice video – check the animation that starts about 1 minute in, and stay on for the recap of potential impacts on the Eastern US toward the end.
One can only hope that the albedo feedback from the melted Arctic sea ice doesn’t bite us too hard by the time 2030 rolls around (or whenever the summer sea ice is gone). One can only hope that the Arctic melt doesn’t slow down the big ocean conveyor too much. The potential impacts for northern Europe and eastern North America sound bad enough.
This paper from Nature in 2008 cites a correlation between the subtropical Atlantic sea surface temperature and the western Amazon rainforest drought of 2005. From what I can tell, these scientists didn’t model an increase in sea surface temps due to a disruption in the ocean current. Even without that, the prospects for western Amazon rainfall don’t seem encouraging (Figures 2 thru 4).
http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/2985/1/CoxNaturePostP.pdf
One can only hope that this Catlin Arctic Survey finds that we have enough time before Atlantic circulation changes occur, or maybe that the changes can reverse fairly easily. Gah, a lot of hope.
Ocean Currents: Potential Impacts from melting arctic icecaps http://climateforce.net/2011/07/08/potential-impacts-from-melting-arctic-icecaps/