Global Warming Is Freezing the Planet

05
March 2019

Global Warming Is Freezing the Planet

Last winter, for the first time in several decades, was marked by severe colds. Record colds in terms of area (for the period of regular observations) were registered in large areas of Europe and North America. Meteorologists quickly identified the reason for the phenomenon - the Gulf Stream had weakened and begun to deverge to the east leaving vast areas without traditional heating – and placed the blame on global warming!

Most scientists associate the south-to-north circulation of the Atlantic with a ‘natural pump’ near Greenland. The water that accumulates there is very dense, cold and salty. Sinking to the bottom of the ocean, it pumps warm equatorial masses to its place. However, the accelerated melting of glaciers has led to intensive desalination of the Greenland seas. As a result, the water became lighter, its movement slowed down, and the pressure was gone. Researchers at the University of London proved that the speed of the Gulf Stream has reached a historic minimum in the last fifteen hundred years. So, severe European winters will soon become the norm. Their colleagues from Montreal went even further. According to the Canadians, if the process continues at the same pace, after half a century the average temperature on the planet will add about 4 degrees. This is enough to subject the planet to irreversible changes with unpredictable consequences.

True, there are hypotheses that do not link changes in Gulf Stream behavior with global warming. However, the conclusions based on them are not optimistic either.

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