Yikes!
Interesting fodder for the Global Warming camp... It seems that the Gulf Stream is petering out a bit and has lost about 30% of it's volume.
Of course, this announcement happened just before this weeks intergovernmental talks in Montreal, Canada (the "successor" to Kyoto) so the political agenda of the scientists is put in question.
The
New Scientist has the story:
Failing ocean current raises fears of mini ice age
The ocean current that gives western Europe its relatively balmy climate is stuttering, raising fears that it might fail entirely and plunge the continent into a mini ice age.
The dramatic finding comes from a study of ocean circulation in the North Atlantic, which found a 30% reduction in the warm currents that carry water north from the Gulf Stream.
The slow-down, which has long been predicted as a possible consequence of global warming, will give renewed urgency to intergovernmental talks in Montreal, Canada, this week on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol.
Harry Bryden at the Southampton Oceanography Centre in the UK, whose group carried out the analysis, says he is not yet sure if the change is temporary or signals a long-term trend. "We don’t want to say the circulation will shut down," he told New Scientist. "But we are nervous about our findings. They have come as quite a surprise."
Something to keep an eye on but I fail to see how the finger can be put on human contribution. There is enough environmental randomness going on without our own meddling that to call it Anthropogenic Global Warming is pure hubris.
Posted by DaveH at December 1, 2005 12:25 AM