akmjolnir t1_j24t6t2 wrote
Climate only affects people.
People are selfish and aren't good at extrapolation 2nd/3rd/etc. order repercussions, or scale up their thinking to big stuff.
People will suffer, but the planet will be fine.
We might see short-term increases in temperature, but that just leads to frozen fresh water (ice) melting into the oceans, which will likely disrupt the deep currents by changing the salinity of the currents. This will likely lead to a big drop in temperatures in North America.
In the end we'll be able to ski and ice fish year-round.
kearsargeII t1_j2b4v2a wrote
The science on Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation shutdown happening is a bit iffy, not in that it is bad science, but rather that it requires a pretty specific set of circumstances, a meltwater pulse at just the right time, that isn't that likely to happen, with global warming. Way more likely to happen is a slight weakening in the circulation, which just slows the rate of warming for a few years. Anyways, North America would not be that heavily affected, it would be the western shore of Europe that would face the bulk of the effects.
It definitely wouldn't kickstart the next ice age, if that is what you are implying. The Younger Dryas occurred with a much weaker Milankovitch forcing, kicking off an feedback loop of cooling temperatures is more or less impossible even if the AMOC shuts down completely under current conditions. Worst case scenario for an AMOC shutdown is temperatures dropping in the UK and the Norwegian coast by up to 10 degrees, elsewhere in Europe by less than half that, and not really affecting North America much as prevailing weather patterns are from the west here. It definitely would not stop global warming.
Crazy_Hick_in_NH t1_j26au8b wrote
Climate facts. People facts. Planet facts.
The key words in your argument are “might” and “likely”…science plays a role, proving or disproving such hypotheses.
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