17/02/2024
Once again Nick Breeze provides us with a fascinating interview. This week the media has been full of alarmist stories of the Gulf Stream shutting down - based on a piece of research conducted by Rene Van Westen. This interview sets the record straight.
https://youtu.be/7o348tvoh0k?si=bdQoNu6Gxi_IvYWM
The interview is with the lead researcher, Rene Van Westen, who describes how a model of the AMOC system was caused to collapse by adding 80 times the current volume of fresh water (from melting land ice). However, he indicates that the tipping point, where there is no chance of returning to the previous dynamic, could be triggered by just 5 or 10 times the current influx of fresh water. He explains that many other climate systems are involved, some of which could amplify the shutting down of the current.
Elsewhere it is reported that the Gulf Stream is rapidly slowing now, and heading towards a tipping point - and if this is reached, the circulation could stop in just a handful of decades to a century. This would result in much colder temperatures in Europe, and a rapid sea level increase of about a metre, as well as a multitude of other threats.
In this ClimateGenn Episode I speak with Dr René van Westen about the recent research he published with colleagues looking at what it would take to cause the...
