How do greenhouse gas emissions create rapid climate change?

The Greenhouse Gas Effect increases the surface temperature of the Earth. This increase in temperature, which in turn melts the Arctic Ice Cap, glaciers and the Antarctic Ice Cap, is the beginning of the process. When the Arctic Ice Cap melts, cold fresh water drops to the ocean floor and creates a current. This current begins a process that when added with other global water flows is referred to as 'thermohaline circulation'. Thermohaline circulation is seasonally augmented by additional cold fresh water flows provided by melting ice caps and snow.

As can be seen in Figure 1, noted below, thermohaline circulation in the North Atlantic is the main engine powering the Great Ocean Conveyor, a twisting, swirling current that wends through all the World’s oceans. Deep currents travel around the globe to the Indian and Pacific oceans and return as warm surface currents.

The seasonal melting of a small portion of the ice caps in different regions of the World is required for thermohaline circulation to continue. If the freshening trend in the North Atlantic continues (the ice caps melt completely due to global warming), thermohaline circulation could shut down, altering or even stopping the Great Ocean Conveyor’s flow.

Figure 1: Graphic courtesy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.

Figure 2, noted below, shows a three-dimensional computer schematic of the Atlantic seafloor, viewed from a hypothetical vantage point in space. The picture reveals how heat is transferred from ocean currents to air currents.

Figure 2: Graphic courtesy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.

As the warm surface currents of the Gulf Stream (small red arrows) flow up to the North Atlantic from the equator, the prevailing westerly winds (large blue arrow) blow across them, picking up their warmth (large red arrow) and lofting it to Europe. The now cooler, denser water (small blue arrows), produced as the warm currents lose heat to the atmosphere, then sinks a mile or more. The process is called thermohaline circulation.

This continuous transference of heat from the oceans and seas to the air currents is critical to the stabile functioning of the World's ecosystems. Due to the interdependence of these systems and weather patterns, if one system or weather pattern fails it will have a 'domino effect' on other systems and weather patterns.

When the systems shown in Figures 1 and 2 fail, they will do so very rapidly, and this will lead to uneven climate change. This will in turn lead to large differentials in global temperatures as are shown in this picture.

Unfortunately, as these weather patterns and ecosystems become destabilized they will manifest their instability through bizarre actions. Once a globally interdependent ecosystem collapses it cannot be restarted.

The 'Links' sub-tab noted above can provide you with additional resources on climate change and the science behind the Kyoto Protocol.

Additional up-to-date news information on greenhouse gas emissions, climate change and the Kyoto Protocol can be found in the 'News' tab at the top of this page.

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