Sorry, it's bloody Global Warming again! At least this time it's a short rant.
Fundamental to the dire predictions about Britain's future climate has been the Gulf Stream. In the 1970s they predicted that the Gulf Stream was going to stop flowing, or be diverted somewhere else, with the result that the British Isles would be plunged into an arctic winter similar to that of Labrador.
The Gulf Stream
In the present the predictions are not so very different: global warming will melt the polar ice-cap and the glaciers, the sea will become (a) deeper and (b) less salty, and this in turn will cause the Gulf Stream to stop flowing with the result that the British isles will be plunged into an arctic winter similar to that of Labrador. Or possibly get hotter - they aren't too clear about it.
Labrador
But the one thing us ordinary mortals can be sure of is that what one scientist discovers today, another will debunk tomorrow. And, sure enough, some scientists are now saying that the British Isles don't owe their mild climate to the Gulf Stream at all, and never did, and that it won't matter very much what happens to it.
I guess this is good news, at least until the next theory comes along. If you'd like to read more about it, there's a very good explanation here by Richard Seager.
That's all.
either on this site or on the World Wide Web.
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