UK: Blizzards Sweep Nation and Ports Freeze Over

Perhaps one of the more confusing factors regarding global warming is the suggestion that parts of the planet will indeed get a whole lot colder. It doesn’t seem to equate, does it?

Surely, as harmful emissions trap heat from the sun, then logic would dictate that the planet would uniformly heat up as a result.

Well, perhaps that is a little outmoded now. The constant reporting on climate change has left a majority of us with a good grasp of the situation. Perhaps that’s why I personally feel “climate chaos” best describes the planet’s current transition.

There can be no better example – certainly here in the UK anyway – of the unpredictability regarding future climates than the Gulf Stream.

Earlier in the week, The Observer, one of the UK’s Sunday broadsheets, reported on a story regarding the launch of a project to use robots to analyse the current situation in the Atlantic.

Why is the Gulf Stream so important to our climate here in Britain?

Beginning its course in the Gulf of Mexico, it travels along the US seaboard, before altering its direction and flowing to western Europe. This constant flow of warm water gives the UK its relatively temperate climate.

Ian Sample, a writer for The Guardian, described it in a piece in 2005:

The current is essentially a huge oceanic conveyor belt that transports heat from equatorial regions towards the Arctic circle. Warm surface water coming up from the tropics gives off heat as it moves north until eventually, it cools so much in northern waters that it sinks and circulates back to the south. There it warms again, rises and heads back north. The constant sinking in the north and rising in the south drives the conveyor.

It always blows me away how clever nature is, yet crucially, so finely balanced also.

As the Arctic continues to melt, this balance may well tip. Robin McKie, in The Observer piece already mentioned, states:

[The] Gulf Stream is particularly warm and salty, and increasing amounts of fresh water pouring into it from the Arctic are likely to disrupt it.

Not only disrupt it. The current could stop altogether. The result would be catastrophic. We’d experience freezing temperatures, blizzards and ports would freeze over during the winter months. As an island, we’re still very much reliant on shipping. Should the Gulf Stream stop flowing, then the headline that drew you to this post could well become a reality.

That’s why it is imperative that Rapid Watch–the project involving the use of sensors and robots that will be launched later this year to keep tabs on the situation–is so important.

Cables will attach devices to the seabed and measure the currents and temperature at depths down to 5,000 metres. In addition to this, robots will study the current at varying depths to monitor any variations in the flow.

If extreme weather is to hit these isles, then it’s imperative that the population be prepared.

The title for this post is of course currently inaccurate. But there’s a chance that won’t always be.

Sources:

Ocean floor sensors will warn of failing Gulf Stream

Alarm over dramatic weakening of Gulf Stream

Image courtesy of Flickr

Further Info.

Interactive Guide to the Gulf Stream. Enlightening, yet easy to understand. Well worth a click.