Saturday, December 25, 2010

Quote of the Day

It's gotten so cold in Merrie Olde England that one has to travel to central Alabama to find temps so warm here. There is an explanation, though:
The gulf stream is blocked with the oil spill that BP created. This has been confirmed by several scientist here in the US. It will have a devastating effect on the US east coast and parts of Europe, including the UK for years to come.
Found on Jammie Wearing Fool, a comment on a Daily Mail article Here.

1 comment:

Brad K. said...

Actually the gulf stream stopped a few years ago.

In normal years the gulf stream, waters warmed in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, stream up the Atlantic coast of the US, and over to the North Sea. During it's travels, evaporation causes the now cooling water to be more heavily salted than the surrounding ocean - and it sinks. Into the North Sea. And then flows back along the bottom of the Atlantic to the Caribbean and soaks up some warming sun, rising to the surface to keep the "pump" running.

Almost ten years ago there was a (serious) proposal to put dams across the fjords of Scandanavia. It seems that the spring runnoff has been heavier lately, and the jets of clear water pushing into the North Sea - have been diluting the Gulf Stream. So that it doesn't sink. And the water flowing in from the Gulf backs up. And the whole Gulf stream kind of . . stops. For a while. Eventually I guess the Scandavian snow packs get cold enough not to run off so strongly in the spring, so that the gulf water doesn't get diluted, and the century-long river across the floor of the Atlantic starts running again, carrying the cooled waters of the North Sea down south to bask in the sunshine.

I am pretty sure that the oil spill this year, that Obama decreed couldn't be allowed to stop until it "really, really embarrassed" BP, didn't have anything to do with stopping the Gulf waters from warming (and pushing toward Europe) or cooling the ocean flow.

Actually, my bet is that the Gulf Stream was diverted to service the US National Debt.