No need to worry about the earth’s environment, just slap a few voluntary goals on industry and set our sights on the moon:
A study, which is being taken seriously by top government scientists, has uncovered a change “of remarkable amplitude” in the circulation of the waters of the North Atlantic.
Similar events in pre-history are known to have caused sudden “flips” of the climate, bringing ice ages to northern Europe within a few decades. The development – described as “the largest and most dramatic oceanic change ever measured in the era of modern instruments”, by the US Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, which led the research – threatens to turn off the Gulf Stream, which keeps Europe’s weather mild.
If that happens, Britain and northern Europe are expected to switch abruptly to the climate of Labrador – which is on the same latitude – bringing a nightmare scenario where farmland turns to tundra and winter temperatures drop below -20C.
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“Even as the earth as a whole continues to warm gradually, large regions may experience a precipitous and disruptive shift into colder climates.” The scientists, who studied the composition of the waters of the Atlantic from Greenland to Tierra del Fuego, found that they have become “very much” saltier in the tropics and subtropics and “very much” fresher towards the poles over the past 50 years.
This is alarming because the Gulf Stream is driven by cold, very salty water sinking in the North Atlantic. This pulls warm surface waters northwards, forming the current.