Gulf Stream Faltering
The recently discovered slowing of the Gulf Stream in the North
Atlantic could bring a dramatic cooling effect on the climate of
Britain and Europe, according to a British scientist who discovered
it.
Gulf Stream Faltering
The recently discovered slowing of the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic could bring a dramatic cooling effect on the climate of Britain and Europe, according to a British scientist who discovered it.
The Times of London reports Peter Wadhams, professor of ocean physics at Cambridge University, hitched rides under the Arctic ice cap in Royal Navy submarines and used ships to take measurements across the Greenland Sea.
“Until recently, we would find giant ‘chimneys’ in the sea where columns of cold, dense water were sinking from the surface to the seabed 3,000 meters (10,000 feet) below, but now they have almost disappeared,” he said. The sinking brings in more warm water from the south, keeping Northern Europe mild. Climate change experts have long predicted a slowing of the massive ocean current system due to global warming, but this is the first evidence that it may have begun.
Dead Sea Survival
Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority agreed to a feasibility study to bring in water from the Red Sea to replenish the slowly vanishing Dead Sea. Decades of water diversion from the Jordan River, the Dead Sea’s main source of inflow, has caused the lowest and most saline body of water on Earth to shrink by a third. Its level continues to drop by about 3 feet a year.
The proposed Two Seas Canal would bring water from the Red Sea to a power station and a desalination plant in Jordan. The five-year construction project could provide about 13 billion cubic feet of fresh water per year to the three countries on the Dead Sea, as well as around 550 megawatts of hydroelectric power.
African Outbreaks
