BBC:
In 2007 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
predicted that increased greenhouse gas concentrations would
lead to a weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning
Circulation, which includes the Gulf Stream. The result would
be cooler temperatures in Europe. A group of researchers who
have just published
a
new study in
Nature say, however, that changes to another ocean
current, the Agulhas Current, could keep Europe warm even if
the Gulf Stream switches off. The Agulhas Current flows
southward down the eastern coast of Africa, and although most
of the water heads east back into the Indian Ocean, some of it
leaks around Africa’s southern tipCape
Agulhasand flows into the Atlantic. One of those
researchers, Lisa Beal from the Rosen School of Marine and
Atmospheric Science in Miami, Florida, said that research on
the current to date has been sparse but that wind shifts
farther south make it likely that the Agulhas Leakage is
increasing. "This could mean that current IPCC model
predictions for the next century are wrong and there will be no
cooling in the North Atlantic to partially offset the effects
of global climate change over North America and Europe," said
Beal.
