Atlantic current (Gulf Stream) came to halt for 10 days in 2004

[jpak]

Sea change: why global warming could leave Britain feeling the cold

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,1932761,00.html

Scientists have uncovered more evidence for a dramatic weakening in the vast ocean current that gives Britain its relatively balmy climate by dragging warm water northwards from the tropics. The slowdown, which climate modellers have predicted will follow global warming, has been confirmed by the most detailed study yet of ocean flow in the Atlantic.

Most alarmingly, the data reveal that a part of the current, which is usually 60 times more powerful than the Amazon river, came to a temporary halt during November 2004.

The nightmare scenario of a shutdown in the meridional ocean current which drives the Gulf stream was dramatically portrayed in The Day After Tomorrow. The climate disaster film had Europe and North America plunged into a new ice age practically overnight.

Although no scientist thinks the switch-off could happen that quickly, they do agree that even a weakening of the current over a few decades would have profound consequences.

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[trotsky]

1. Holy crap.

Good thing the "liberal" media keeps the important stuff front & center, like John Kerry flubbing a punchline.

[phantom power]

2. "A complete shutdown would lead to a 4C-6C cooling over 20 years."

I wonder why it would take that long. It seems to me that could happen in one or two years, if the current halted entirely.

[Odin2005]

16. Water can hold a lot of heat, that's why it would take a couple decades.

It would take a long time for all the surface water of the North Atlantic to cool. If it does happen it won't be a like it "The Day After Tomorrow", that's for sure.

[kenny blankenship]

3. Lazy Gulf Stream!

That Atlantic current needs to pull itself up by its own bootstraps and stop expecting us to change our system to accommodate its slothful nature.

[AlecBGreen]

12. lol

great!

[Porcupine]

4. Um, could this be why the Brits suddenly noticed Climate Change?

A few years ago Blair was as oblivious as Bush when it came to climate change issues. Suddenly there's a flurry of noise coming from them declaring that they have to do something NOW.

[applegrove]

5. Greatest! Actually most important OP ever.

:cry:

[glitch]

8. Ain't that the truth? K & R for vital info you won't see on cable news. nt

[kestrel91316]

6. Here we go folks. Hang onto your hats..........

[hvn_nbr_2]

7. But Exxon profits are up. Let 'em buy gloves.

:sarcasm:

[JohnWxy]

9. recommended.

[fedsron2us]

10. Gulf Stream or North Atlantic Drift ?

They are not the same and the mechanism that drives them is different

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_Stream

Bryden's study largely concerns the latter.

It is not surprising that it is difficult for scientists to get people to take the impact of Global Warming seriously when even supposedly well informed media such as the Guardian can not report a story accurately.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shutdown_of_thermohaline_circulation

[phantom power]

15. One of those bullet points caught my eye...

While previous shutdowns (e.g. the Younger Dryas) have caused cooling, the current overall climate is different; in particular sea-ice formation is less because of overall global warming.

This is why I now consider a Y.D. event to be a best-case scenario. We might just have driven the system too hard, too fast -- pushed the climate into a "desert-earth" equilibrium. Only the poles habitable by life adapted to the cooler equilibrium of the last few million years.

[hatrack]

11. Recommending - this is interesting

Interesting in a sort of jumping-off-Angel-Falls-with-a-parachute kind of way.

[bananas]

13. Daily images of gulf stream velocities since 2003

Warning, the animations are about 5M to 45M in size,
but the daily images are small.
http://rads.tudelft.nl/gulfstream

[hunter]

14. These animations are cool.

They should post these in some lossy compressed format too, in addition to the directly rendered gifs.

Maybe I'll write them a note...

[MountainLaurel]

17. Oh my word.

How much longer can the climate-change-naysayers keep their heads in the sand? Until their asses freeze off?