The Gulf Stream plays a significant role in maintaining the climate of the US East Coast and Western Europe. “We conclude with a high degree of confidence that Gulf Stream transport has indeed slowed by about 4% in the past 40 years.” The full study is Here
What will be the consequences to this?
Rise in sea levels on the east coast, reduced rain in the east coast, stronger storms, and more precipitation in Europe and the tropics. According to wiki.
I think it’ll also make some areas cold as fuck and probably heat up the gulf.
Western Europe will get pretty fucked without it, We’re much further north than people realise. The Netherlands is further north than Calgary, Canada
The consequences are unpredictable. More extreme weather is about the only certainty.
The energy of the heat transfer will not just be missing in Europe. It’ll also be in excess in the Caribbeans, perhaps creating stronger winds worldwide.
Imagine a house with water radiators, where you turn off the circulation pump while keeping the furnace on full blast. It’s gotta go somewhere.
Read the article in my above comment. it could throw Europe into another ice age, and cause mass starvation. Not to mention the AMOC feeds plankton which is the basis for all of sea life food-webs and so the ripples of this could be very very vast.
Britain and Iceland are utterly fucked.
The good news is that Iceland won’t have to go around apologizing for its name anymore.
Greenland still will be inaccurate though, unless the Arctic decides to just melt.
Maybe the warming and freezing will cancel out and the much smaller islands that will be left after the sea levels rise will still be temperate and worth living on.
Edit: This is not an “I’m alright, Jack” comment. I’d rather this wasn’t even a vague possibility and that the planet wasn’t warming out of control.
Maybe, but food and water will be extremely scarce. We can’t all just up and move. You and I will almost certainly die of starvation.
So’s Norway - quite a few places on the west coast (the most inhabited non-Oslo part of the country) rely on the fact that the gulf stream keeps them unusually warm for their latitude
I’m already seeing things that would normally grow fine out in the garden suffer from abnormally late and early frosts and mild summers. Rip my tomatos and onions. Everyone’s complaining about 20+ degree springs in the mainland while I’m screaming that it’s still snowing in late May.
East coast of Canada and US will become arid. Caribbean will become hotter and storms will become more severe. Scotland, Ireland, Iceland, and Norway will be substantially colder (compare latitude of UK with Northern Canada) and with less precipitation. Basically, everywhere that relies on warm tropical moist air currents will drastically change.
We unfuck ourselves like we always do.
But first, a whole lot of nothing….
It will have to be renamed to the Gulf Trickle.
the EU will cave to any Russian demands if it gets a lot colder in Europe. they wont have any other choice.
“Am I a joke to you?” - Nuclear power in Europe.
they still have it? huh. I thought nuclear wasnt green enough for the EU
That’s just Germany. I don’t think the anti-nuclear sentiment is that popular elsewhere. Finland just started a new reactor, granted we began bulding it already back in 2005.
It’s not green enough for the ecofascists who’d rather have coal than nuclear, but we still have nuclear.
Nuclear plants need water to cool. This would also make Western Europe drier.