THERMOHALINE CIRCULATION CHANGES: A QUESTION OF RISK ASSESSMENT

• Main Authors: An Editorial, Review Essay
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Roland; north atlantic current; North Atlantic; North Atlantic oscillation
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.694.1754; http://www.pik-potsdam.de/%7Estefan/Publications/Journals/rahmstorf%26zickfeld_2005.pdf

report (Olsen and Buch, 2004) on the risk of ocean circulation changes in the Atlantic, to coincide with the release of Roland Emmerich’s Hollywood block-buster The Day after Tomorrow (a film based on a shut-down of the North Atlantic Current). Given its lack of expertise on ocean circulation and climate, the Environ-mental Assessment Institute commissioned two scientists from the Danish Meteo-rological Institute to produce the report. Nevertheless, the report is published and the copyright owned by Lomborg’s institute. Admittedly, the somewhat unusual process of gestation and launch for a scientific document made us approach it with some caution. The report starts by presenting a useful review of what is known about the Atlantic ocean circulation, enhanced by an interesting historical perspective. It then discusses short-term climate variability in the region, focussing on the North Atlantic oscillation (NAO). The next chapter discusses model studies of possible future changes in Atlantic ocean circulation due to greenhouse warming. It is fol-lowed by a chapter on historic ocean circulation changes during glacial times and