James Hansen Says Greenland Melt May Cool North Atlantic [View all]

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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-17/james-hansen-says-greenland-melt-may-cool-north-atlantic.html


Icebergs drift by the mountains in Scoresbysund, Greenland. Inflows of cold, fresh water from Greenland would slow deep currents that carry cold water south, cooling the North Atlantic.

Greenland ice melting at an expanding pace may begin cooling the North Atlantic and increasing the severity of storms by 2075, said James Hansen, the former NASA scientist who raised concerns about global warming in the 1980s.

“If we stay on this path where the rate of mass loss from Greenland doubles every 10 years, we would get to a situation by about 2075 or 2080 where the mass loss is so fast that it causes the whole North Atlantic to be colder,” Hansen said in London.

The findings are from computer models using current rates of ice melt and will be detailed in a paper that Hansen plans to finish writing in the summer, he said yesterday in an interview.

Inflows of cold, fresh water from Greenland would slow deep currents that carry cold water south, cooling the North Atlantic as tropical waters get warmer, Hansen said. That would increase a “temperature gradient” that’s conducive to stronger storms.