So, it’s not actually happening? It’ll just be doom in the future?
Rising Antarctic ice melt will dramatically slow global ocean flows – study
Rapidly melting Antarctic ice is dramatically slowing down the flow of water through the world’s oceans, and could have a disastrous impact on global climate, the marine food chain and even the stability of ice shelves, new research has found.
The “overturning circulation” of the oceans, driven by the movement of denser water towards the sea floor, helps deliver heat, carbon, oxygen and vital nutrients around the globe.
But deep ocean water flows from the Antarctic could decline by 40% by 2050, according to a study published on Wednesday in the journal Nature.
“That’s stunning to see that happen so quickly,” said Alan Mix, a paleoclimatologist at Oregon State University and co-author on the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessments, who was not involved in the study. “It appears to be kicking into gear right now. That’s headline news.”
In reality, this tends to happen during warm periods, which can lead then to cooling periods, it’s just a part of the complex systems on Earth. No reason to drag witchcraft into it. But, do they really know what’s going on? Because I’ve blogged this doomy stuff several times, and we have headlines like
- Global warming is speeding up ocean currents. Here’s why (April 2022)
- Ocean Currents Are Speeding Up, Driven by Faster Winds (Feb 2020)
- Global warming speeds up currents in the ocean’s abyss (March 2022)
Oh, and
Ocean currents drive climate patterns – so what happens when they speed up?
Yeah, that was March 29, 2023.
Read: Your Fault: Melting Antarctic Will Drastically Slow Down Ocean Flows »