Page 28 - aruba-today-20190202

A28 SCIENCE
Saturday 2 February 2019
Ocean mixing that drives climate found in surprise location

By SETH BORENSTEIN nent.
AP Science Writer Scientists have long feared
WASHINGTON (AP) — One that the conveyor belt
of the key drivers of the could be slowing and, in
world's climate is an area in a worst-case scenario,
the North Atlantic Ocean could even stop and cause
where warmer and colder abrupt and catastrophic
water mix and swirl. When climate change. It is con-
scientists went for their first sidered a potential climate
close look at this critical tipping point that was the
underwater dynamo, they premise of the scientifically
found they were looking in inaccurate 2004 disaster
the wrong place. movie "The Day After To-
By hundreds of miles. morrow."
The consequences are not Based on computer model
quite yet understood, but studies, the United Nations'
eventually it could change Intergovernmental Panel
forecasts of one of the on Climate Change re-
worst-case global warming ported in an earlier study
scenarios — still considered it is "very unlikely" that the
unlikely this century — in conveyor belt would col-
which the mixing stops and In this September 2018 photo provided by researcher Isabela Le Bras, a probe which collects wa- lapse this century. But the
climate chaos ensues. ter samples and measures temperature, salinity and pressure is prepared for deployment on the Nobel Prize-winning scien-
It's called the Atlantic Me- continental shelf of Greenland. tific panel concluded it is
ridional Overturning Circu- Associated Press likely to get about a third
lation , and scientists de- slower if greenhouse gas
scribe it as a giant ocean Atlantic to try to better computer simulations that "It doesn't mean that the emissions continue at its
conveyor belt that moves understand the conveyor predict how the climate models are all wrong at all," current pace.
water from Greenland belt. The preliminary results could change in coming said Tom Delworth, a senior A study last year found that
south to beyond the tip of after hundreds of measure- years didn't factor in ex- scientist at the National global warming is weaken-
Africa and into the Indian ments in 21 months found actly where the conveyor Oceanic and Atmospheric ing the system, saying the
Ocean. that engine was several belt engine is, and now Administration's geophysi- conveyor belt was moving
Warm, salty water near the hundreds of miles east of they may be able to. Lozier cal lab in Princeton, New at its slowest speed in near-
surface moves north and where they figured, said and several outside experts Jersey. ly 140 years of records.
mixes with cold, fresher study lead author Susan said this doesn't change MIT's Carl Wunsch and "Our basic understand-
water near Greenland. As Lozier, an ocean sciences their trust in the models, es- other outside experts said ing that the collapse is un-
that water cools and sinks professor at Duke Univer- pecially because when the the study was helpful, but likely still stands," said Del-
it drives a slow circulation sity. The study, published in models are checked with pointed out that 21 months worth, who wasn't part of
of the oceans that is criti- Thursday's journal Science, what is happening in the of study is not enough to the study. "Our uncertainty
cal to global climate, af- puts it east of Greenland, real world, they are found know if this different loca- about that prediction is
fecting the location of closer to Scotland.The to be generally accurate. tion is temporary or perma- high."q
droughts and frequency
of hurricanes. It also stores
heat-trapping carbon diox- Special airlift for baby flamingos
ide deep in the ocean. The
faster it moves, the more in peril in South Africa
warm water gets sent into
the depths to cool.
The area where warm wa- By KEVIN SUTHERLAND bodies of hundreds of 8,000 young flamingos re-
ter turns over in the North Associated Press dead chicks. The cheeps main at the reservoir near
Atlantic is considered to be KIMBERLEY, South Africa of chicks trapped inside Kimberley, active but still
the engine of the convey- (AP) — A special airlift for overheating eggs can be too young to fly. If the wa-
or belt. Scientists thought thousands of baby flamin- heard. ter levels keep dropping,
it was in the Labrador Sea gos is under way in South Local and national groups, experts said, the parents
west of Greenland. In this Thursday, Jan. 31, 2019 Africa as drought has put along with environmental might abandon the chicks
But then a new internation- photo, a rescued flamingo their breeding ground in authorities, have stepped to save themselves.
al science team measured chick tries to walk at a centre peril. in for the rescue operation The chicks in new homes
temperature, saltiness and in Pretoria, South Africa, after A reservoir that hosts one swiftly organized online face a special diet of baby
the speed of ocean cur- being rescued from a dried of southern Africa's larg- and by word of mouth. Bird cereal, sardines, eggs,
out dam in Kimberley.
rents throughout the North Associated Press est flamingo populations experts and veterinarians prawns and vitamin sup-
is drying up. The flamingo have pitched in. plements.
eggs are losing their cool, Local diamond mines paid To simulate parents, feath-
moist protective cover and for an emergency flight to er dusters are placed in the
their inner membranes are carry the first batch of 900 chicks' boxes. Interaction
hardening, making it diffi- chicks to the capital, Pre- with humans is restricted
cult for chicks to peck their toria. Other batches have beyond feeding to mini-
way out. Predators such been flown to Cape Town mize imprinting. Infrared
as meerkats, dogs and and other approved loca- lights give warmth.
hawks are nearby, waiting tions. Some of the chicks' rescuers
for the exhausted chicks to Three thousand flamingo are already thinking about
emerge. chicks have been moved next year and what to do if
The site is littered with the in all. Another 6,000 to drought occurs again.q