Ocean Currents to Counteract Climate Change

As manmade, carbon emissions-driven climate change forces temperatures up, research shows that nature is pushing back:  Naturally-occurring variations in ocean currents are expected to counteract the global warming trend over the next decade.

Scientists at the Leibniz Institute for Marine Science in Germany studied a current know as the meridional overturning current (MOC), which cycles water through the North Alantic and returns colder water southward.  A strong MOC results in warmer water and milder northern climates, while a weaker current does the opposite. 

Because the strength of the MOC fluctuates on a natural, 70- to 80-year cycle, and we're poised to enter a weak period, temperatures in the North Atlantic should cool over the next 10 years or so.  Temps in the tropical Pacific will likely remain the same.

 

 

Read more at The Guardian

Photo by NASA via Wikimedia Commons