IT IS not unknown for Hollywood to exaggerate in its quest for box office success. But for climate scientists, the film The Day After Tomorrow, which opens next month, is a step too far. It portrays New York City frozen solid after the warm ocean current called the Gulf Stream shuts down.
It is a respectable idea that as global warming melts Arctic ice, the North Atlantic will become less salty and two gigantic “pumps” could shut down. These pumps rely on dense, salty water sinking in the far north of the Atlantic to draw warm surface waters northwards. But…
