Complications of warmed pole areas (climate, water, air)

[juliaanne]

I know the conveyor belt/thermohaline circulation could shut down because more warming in the Arctic would mean the icebergs and caps, which are 100% fresh water, could melt and make the water too fresh to produce the dense, cold waters form into deep water currents, moving toward the equator. But a couple things confuse me about this scenario.

1. When the polar areas grow warmer, there is more evaporation, which leaves salt behind.

2. Warmer air can hold more water vapour, which means there would be greater potential for snow to form.

But another thing that would make the poles even warmer would be the release of methane from clathrates, which would happen more so than it already is, which also fits into the thermohaline shutdown scenario.

By the way...I saw the sticky which said it's not kay to talk about climate change. If a moderator sees this, could you tell me if I am going to have this thread closed, or be banned for speaking about issues related to climate change? Even if I am civil in my discussion? It's nice to have a forum to discuss these confusing matters. Asking about these sorts of things on Yahoo Answers never goes anywhere, as you can probably imagine.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by juliaanne

I know the conveyor belt/thermohaline circulation could shut down because more warming in the Arctic would mean the icebergs and caps, which are 100% fresh water, could melt and make the water too fresh to produce the dense, cold waters form into deep water currents, moving toward the equator. But a couple things confuse me about this scenario.

1. When the polar areas grow warmer, there is more evaporation, which leaves salt behind.

2. Warmer air can hold more water vapour, which means there would be greater potential for snow to form.

But another thing that would make the poles even warmer would be the release of methane from clathrates, which would happen more so than it already is, which also fits into the thermohaline shutdown scenario.

You're already operating above my grade level on this topic. You might want to look for a more specialized discussion, on a more narrowly defined technical forum.

By the way...I saw the sticky which said it's not kay to talk about climate change. If a moderator sees this, could you tell me if I am going to have this thread closed, or be banned for speaking about issues related to climate change? Even if I am civil in my discussion?

That isn't what it says. Read it again. What makes threads problematic for the moderators is when they get into contentious political wrangles, and unfortunately this is a topic area that has become highly politicized. As long as we speak respectfully there's no problem, but there's no controlling who else might show up.

It's nice to have a forum to discuss these confusing matters. Asking about these sorts of things on Yahoo Answers never goes anywhere, as you can probably imagine.

I have no idea, because I don't ever use that site.