How microscopic plankton explain the opening of the Northwest Passage

Miriam - 

For centuries, mariners sought the Northwest Passage, a route through the Canadian ice that connected the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans.

Today, the Arctic ice has melted so much that the Northwest Passage exists – there’s already multinational wrangling over shipping rights.

Why is the Arctic melting so fast? There are a number of reasons, but a new study in Science shows that part of the reason is that the ocean currents are pumping heat from the rest of the world straight into the Arctic.

The oceans have always moved heat around the globe. The classic way of understanding this is called thermohaline circulation, or the “ocean conveyer belt.” Warm currents flow northward in the Atlantic, bringing equatorial heat to the Arctic.

The totally awesome but …scientifically challenged… movie The Day After Tomorrow was based on a shutdown of this circulation – no more heat to the temperate regions meant that Jake Gyllenhaal was chased through icy Manhattan by feral wolves with glowing red eyes O NOES !

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