So maybeish, so there is the possibility that warming of the oceans will cause the large ocean currents to slow/stop. This will reduce the amount of mixing of ocean water. Causing greater salinity and temperature gradients in the oceans relative to latitude. Making the Arctic ocean colder and the tropical ocean warmer. This colder Arctic ocean would lead to lower Arctic temperatures and an increase in ice, increasing the albedo of earth. The higher albedo would reflect more sunlight cooling the planet into an ice age.
Having said all that it is important to note, first if this happens it will be on geologic time scales. So the planet will still get a lot hotter first. Second it is just a hypothesis, we don’t know what is going to happen on a longer scale because this period of warming is unprecedented in earth’s history. Yes it has been hotter and had higher CO2 levels, but not anywhere the speed of chance we have had in the last 100years. So using past trends to predict the current change will be vague at best.
TLDR: it is still going to get a lot hotter before any chance of getting colder.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but this warm ocean leading to cold poles is one of the suspected mechanisms that cause repeated glacial/interglacial periods in ice ages, right?
So maybeish, so there is the possibility that warming of the oceans will cause the large ocean currents to slow/stop. This will reduce the amount of mixing of ocean water. Causing greater salinity and temperature gradients in the oceans relative to latitude. Making the Arctic ocean colder and the tropical ocean warmer. This colder Arctic ocean would lead to lower Arctic temperatures and an increase in ice, increasing the albedo of earth. The higher albedo would reflect more sunlight cooling the planet into an ice age.
Having said all that it is important to note, first if this happens it will be on geologic time scales. So the planet will still get a lot hotter first. Second it is just a hypothesis, we don’t know what is going to happen on a longer scale because this period of warming is unprecedented in earth’s history. Yes it has been hotter and had higher CO2 levels, but not anywhere the speed of chance we have had in the last 100years. So using past trends to predict the current change will be vague at best.
TLDR: it is still going to get a lot hotter before any chance of getting colder.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but this warm ocean leading to cold poles is one of the suspected mechanisms that cause repeated glacial/interglacial periods in ice ages, right?
That is my understanding, though I don’t know the details of the process off the top of my head.