Already the Gulf Stream, which bathes the west coast of Britain in warm water from the Gulf of Mexico and keeps the country much milder than normal for such northern latitudes, is slowing down. Even greater melting of the Greenland ice could shut off the currents altogether, allowing depressions to dump snow rather than instead of rain in Britain and leading to a much colder continental climate, as has been experienced in the past week.
As happens on the eastern seaboard of Canada, which on the same latitude, the sea could freeze and snow lie for weeks or months instead of a day of two.
Last year large areas of the Greenland ice shelf, previously too high and too cold to melt, began pouring billions of gallons of fresh water into the northern Atlantic. Melted water trapped between the ice and the rock beneath is causing an acceleration of glaciers breaking off in huge chunks and increasing the number of icebergs.
