Caribbean to Face Temperature Spikes as Global Warming Heats Up

A study from researchers at the UK´s National Oceanography Centre has reached a paradoxical conclusion: global warming may cause a lowering of European temperatures while making the Caribbean even hotter, and it could happen very quickly.

The research team´s conclusions, as reported in the scientific journal Nature, are based on observations of the Gulf Stream over a period of 50 years. They have concluded that the current is weakening and, as a result, less warm water, and consequently less heat, is being transferred from the mid-Atlantic towards the North.

The study, a joint project of the UK´s National Environment Research Council (NERC) and Project Rapid, a group examining the possibility of rapid climate change, explains that the Gulf Stream operates somewhat like a conveyor belt. It carries warm water north, which gradually cools and sinks, as it gets colder, a process referred to as "overturning."

The rapid melting of the Arctic ice cap is apparently affecting the mechanism. As the northeastern branch flows, it gives off heat to the atmosphere, which in turn warms European land, less heat equals less warming.