# Oh crap. The Gulf Stream is slowing. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 13, 2005, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-crap-the-gulf-stream-is-slowing/303704 "2005-05-13T17:08:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-crap-the-gulf-stream-is-slowing/303704/1 "2005-05-13T17:08:59Z")
[http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=4595](http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=4595) If this is true, things don’t look good for Europe. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-crap-the-gulf-stream-is-slowing/303704/2 "2005-05-13T17:14:06Z")
If it happens the world will feel the pain with Europe. The US will be severely effected by it as well. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-crap-the-gulf-stream-is-slowing/303704/3 "2005-05-13T17:17:27Z")
This certainly effects **yojimbo** directly; but I wonder what will happen on the Left Coast of the U.S.? Here in the PNW, everyone’s talking about a ‘drought’. (Doesn’t seem like it to me, SoCal native as I am.) If such an event occurs, will the PNW have drier weather? What about SoCal? Will it become more of a desert than it already is? Or will it get colder up here and down south, and should I be thinking of kicking the tenants out of the San Diego house? ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-crap-the-gulf-stream-is-slowing/303704/4 "2005-05-13T17:18:07Z")
WTF happened to global warming? 😕 …I wish they’d make up their minds… I have a wardrobe to plan… ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-crap-the-gulf-stream-is-slowing/303704/5 "2005-05-13T17:20:02Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > WTF happened to global warming? 😕 > …I wish they’d make up their minds… I have a wardrobe to plan… I believe it goes like this (going from often-faulty memory): If temperatures rise, then the ice caps will melt. When the ice caps melt, more fresh water flows into the ocean and decreases its salinity. This would shut down the ‘heat pump’ of the deep ocean currents, resulting in an ice age. ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-crap-the-gulf-stream-is-slowing/303704/6 "2005-05-13T17:21:31Z")
“Look, I’m a conservative Republican! _Day After Tomorrow_ is hooey! That would never happen! Global Warming is a liberal pinko wet-dream!” ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-crap-the-gulf-stream-is-slowing/303704/7 "2005-05-13T17:23:26Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > WTF happened to global warming? 😕 The slowing of the Gulf Stream is/will be a direct result of global warming - as and the findings so far are hard to explain by any other means, as indicated in the OP’s link: > [@](#): > > The Gulf Stream is flowing at a quarter of the strength that was present five years ago. This is happening because gigantic chimneys of cold water that were sinking from the surface to the sea bed off Greenland have disappeared > … > Why it happened remains unknown, but it certainly had to do with the very sort of spiking of temperatures that the world has experienced over the past fifty years ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-crap-the-gulf-stream-is-slowing/303704/8 "2005-05-13T17:24:39Z")
Well, if it stops, they’ll have to change its name. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-crap-the-gulf-stream-is-slowing/303704/9 "2005-05-13T17:27:18Z")
Apparently the general global warming led to warmer water in the Greenland Sea, which suppressed the downlowing cold-water columns that pull the Gulf Stream along. So while on average the earth is getting warmer, locally and for certain times it may get colder. Apparently with the greater amount of energy in the warmed atmosphere, we can expect greater extremes of temperature and motre storms as well. There was an article in The Atlantic magazine about this (Jan 1998?). The Atlantic’s archives are pay-only unfortunately. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-crap-the-gulf-stream-is-slowing/303704/10 "2005-05-13T17:32:15Z")
:smack: Umm… yeah. I guess my sarcasm didn’t come through at all just then. But thanks for not calling me a dumbass. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-crap-the-gulf-stream-is-slowing/303704/11 "2005-05-13T17:36:18Z")
I don’t mean to sound like a blindfolded naysayer, but the OP’s cite is Whitley Streiber, a gentleman who is, to be quite frank, a paranoid schizophrenic who claims that aliens abduct him regularly, that there are coded messages on U.S. currency, hidden faces in Marian mountains, and that there are “Indigo children.” The man’s a total nut. Mr. Streiber provides no original cites and uses, as an example, a movie every scientist acknowledges to be ludicrous fiction - and which just happens to be based loosely on a book he wrote, and which was then re-novelized by himself! You couldn’t find a worse source if you tried. ---
**Author:** ![CynicalGabe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@CynicalGabe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CynicalGabe)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-crap-the-gulf-stream-is-slowing/303704/12 "2005-05-13T17:36:54Z")
Anyone seen Michael Crichton around here lately? I need to roll up a newspaper article and in a friendly fashion bap him on the forehead with it. ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-crap-the-gulf-stream-is-slowing/303704/13 "2005-05-13T17:42:53Z")
Gotta go with **RJ** here. A change of this magnitude would light up the daily headlines like Christmas, and I’ve yet to hear a peep out of the mainstream scientific community. Not knowing anything about Streiber, it’s already obvious this is Tinfoil Hattery of a cardinal order. That’s not to say the changes described aren’t anticipated, if you use that word in a very loose fashion, but this guy isn’t in the orbit of the planet of current reality. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-crap-the-gulf-stream-is-slowing/303704/14 "2005-05-13T17:46:19Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > You couldn’t find a worse source if you tried. Read between the lines (or actually read the lines), and you realise he’s not plucking things out of thin air. He’s talking about work at [Cambridge University](http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/sipo/), also being reported by [CNN](http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/05/10/gulfstream/), [The Times](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1602579,00.html) and [the Washnigton Times](http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20050508-095615-9856r.htm). ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-crap-the-gulf-stream-is-slowing/303704/15 "2005-05-13T17:46:57Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > But thanks for not calling me a dumbass. dumbass. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-crap-the-gulf-stream-is-slowing/303704/16 "2005-05-13T17:48:46Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I don’t mean to sound like a blindfolded naysayer, but the OP’s cite is Whitley Streiber, a gentleman who is, to be quite frank, a paranoid schizophrenic who claims that aliens abduct him regularly, that there are coded messages on U.S. currency, hidden faces in Marian mountains, and that there are “Indigo children.” The man’s a total nut. > > Mr. Streiber provides no original cites and uses, as an example, a movie every scientist acknowledges to be ludicrous fiction - and which just happens to be based loosely on a book he wrote, and which was then re-novelized by himself! > > You couldn’t find a worse source if you tried. That’s why I said “if”. 🙂 Yeah, I was wondering about the quick-frozen Ice Man “suddenness” thing myself too. And I’d like to follow the cites in the OP’s quoted article to their sources, namely the “Cambridge scientists”. But that’s what the Dope’s about: sorting jewels from crap. I don’t think that the mere possibility of such a change should be written off though. Here’s an earlier BBC cite from 2003: [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3266833.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3266833.stm) ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-crap-the-gulf-stream-is-slowing/303704/17 "2005-05-13T17:52:46Z")
> [@NurseCarmen](#): > > dumbass. > 😛 D’Oh! \_Listen, just because I don’t caaare… doesn’t mean I don’t understaaand._ \ ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-crap-the-gulf-stream-is-slowing/303704/18 "2005-05-13T18:16:17Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Read between the lines (or actually read the lines), and you realise he’s not plucking things out of thin air. He’s talking about work at [Cambridge University](http://www.damtp.cam.ac.uk/sipo/), also being reported by [CNN](http://edition.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/05/10/gulfstream/), [The Times](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1602579,00.html) and [the Washnigton Times](http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20050508-095615-9856r.htm). The point isn’t that these changes in the Arctic aren’t a grave concern and warrant immediate changes in human behavior, it’s that this Streiber dude is talking like the hypotheses have been confirmed, and that the climate is now changing so precipitously that a European Ice Age is immenent. I call bullshit until until I hear a lot more from somebody else. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-crap-the-gulf-stream-is-slowing/303704/19 "2005-05-13T18:17:09Z")
I think if we called it “Global Weather Screwing-Up” instead of “Global Warming” people would get the message better. I agree that this source is questionable; has anyone got a better one? Cause the things I’ve been hearing and seeing in Western Canada lead me to think he’s not completely off his nut on this one. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2005, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-crap-the-gulf-stream-is-slowing/303704/20 "2005-05-13T18:18:44Z")
The guy may be off his nut, but the underlying point–that global warming is screwing us over–seems to be pretty valid. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oh-crap-the-gulf-stream-is-slowing/303704.md?page=2)