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Huge Freshwater Bulge In Arctic Ocean
New submitter turkeyfish writes "UK scientists are reporting today in the journal Nature Geoscience that a huge bulge of freshwater is forming in the Western Arctic Ocean caused by a large gyre of freshwater. The gyre appears to indicate that the ice is becoming thin enough over the Arctic Ocean that the wind is beginning to affect the motion of water under the ice. A sudden release of this water or its emergence to the surface will greatly accelerate the melting of the remaining polar oceanic ice and likely alter oceanic circulation in the North Atlantic."
This is all rubbish! The planet is freezing up and we are approaching an ice age.
The fresh water can freeze faster than the salt water, so it will freeze back in a few months.
Like the Greenland glaciers.
Right. The Greenland glaciers melting may be bad. Now, would you so kindly tell me how a fresh water plume will affect glaciers ON LAND?
Next, I need some clarification. I understand that glaciers melting on land may rise sea levels and be bad. And I understand that melting ice caps will cause the ocean currents to cease, making the poles freeze while everything else bakes. And I understand that rising CO2 levels trap heat causing the ice to melt... but wait a minute
First, if the ocean currents cease because there is no ice at the poles and poles freeze over, won't that cause the currents to start back up again. See, the currents are caused by freezing water, not frozen water. When salt water freezes, it loses its salt, making the rest of the unfrozen water saltier. That water falls and has nowhere to go but toward the equator. These currents help balance the climate, keeping the tropics from overheating and keeping the northern latitudes from freezing over too much. Which brings me back to my main point; if the poles freeze over due to no current, won't that kick start the currents again? And to YOUR point, glaciers melting over land will have little to no impact on ocean currents, because, as has been previously, stated, GreenLAND is LAND.
Finally, I thought it was CO2 from our SUV's and coal fired plants causing glaciers to melt. Now it's fresh water? Are you telling me there are aspects of the climate that we didn't consider before giving unlimited power over our lives to our governments?
Also note that "global warming" and "climate change" are not found in TFA, but don't let that stop all of you from blaming climate change and global warming on your own... you know, because the scientists are right, even when they never said it.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
"More water in the system will destroy some of the well established ocean currents that drives the weather on the planet and have caused some stability for the last 15000 years or so."
Um... no. It has been warmer than this before (during the Medieval Warming Period for example, which did exist despite rhetoric from certain fanatics), and no doubt at some time it will again. Humanity did not die off; in fact there is every reason to believe they thrived during those times.
I really wish people would stop panicking over what amounts to very little.
Forget the massive flooding thing. If/when all the ice in the world has melted and run into the ocean, the ocean won't go up much more than a foot. That's ALL the ice in the world, land and sea.
As for what happened - the dinosaurs ruled the earth, so you would have to ask their historians. Our historians weren't even a gleam in a chimpanzee's eye yet.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Do you have any scientific evidence that the globe was warmer during the MWP than it is now? From all I know it likely wasn't.
What back and forth? They have been "telling us so" for the last 20 years, and it still hasn't happened. With that kind of track record, your credibility is somewhat strained... Two things I know are that this is not the year the ice caps melt, and this is not the year of Linux on the desktop. (Ironically posted from a Linux desktop)
Actually, no. There was a lot of freakish behaviour, I don't know how you are able to ignore it*. More than half of the continental United States was affected by either drought or flood last year, a record level of both. In particular, Texas had the worst drought since they started keeping temperature records
Really? Cause I once heard about this event called the "dust bowl", caused in part by a multi-year drought throughout the midwest and south. When we get something worse than that, let me know.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.