Experts are terrified this climate 'tipping element' could devastate humanity.
Watch the full conversation: https://tdc.video/programs/how-earths...

Dr. Jennifer A. Francis: https://www.jenniferafrancis.com/
https://www.woodwellclimate.org/staff...

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Video by Bryce Plank

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Full Transcript:
(Bryce) Global weather patterns are regulated
by ocean currents, but warming water is causing

those currents to change.

This is one of a handful of earth system tipping
elements that climate experts fear could set

off incomprehensible devastation.

(Dr. Francis) I'm sure most people have heard
about the ocean conveyor belt which is basically

the system of ocean currents that flow all
around the world's oceans.

There are two places really that that push
that current to flow.

One of them is in the North Atlantic.

And the idea here is that when fall and winter
come along the ocean surface waters get cold

and they freeze.

And when they freeze, they eject the salt
out of the water.

And that heavy, salty, cold water that comes
out of that freezing process is very heavy

relative to the other water in the area, and
so it sinks really rapidly.

And it creates this downward flow of water
which then basically turns south and starts

heading towards the southern Atlantic and
meets up with other currents along the way.

And another area where this happens is off
the coast of Antarctica, where also you get

some very cold air temperatures and ocean
water freezing.

So the concern is that in the area around
Greenland, the water has been becoming fresher

partly because of the water that's being melted
from the Greenland ice sheet.

(Medley) "Over the past few days we've seen
a significant amount of, actually, liquid

water on the surface that have both accumulated
in small ponds, and probably approaching the

size of lakes especially near the edge of
the ice sheet.

An interesting thing is that the melt season
actually in Greenland started pretty much

end of April, beginning of May--which, in
the grand scheme of things, is very close

to a month earlier than average.

My name is Brooke Medley.

I'm the deputy project scientist for Operation
Ice Bridge.

Last April and May, we were actually flying
in Greenland out of Kangerlussuaq on the NASA

P-3.

This was somewhat of a unique year where we
expected to be going early enough where we

would see the typical dry snow conditions.

But, rather, we were met with a much different
scenario where we saw all these spectacular

blue ponds of beautiful liquid water just
pooling on top of the surface.

The ice sheet is actually experiencing almost
an additional month of melt because it started

so early here.

Part of it is actually driven by the fact
that it's very warm right now, but also that

there was not a lot of snowfall last winter.

And so what that means is when the snow does
melt it very quickly exposes darker ice, which

can then melt even faster.

Just a significant increase in the total amount
of water that we just see in general over

the course of 2019.

There was so much melt that it actually ended
up being the second largest meltwater production

year for the Greenland ice sheet since 1980.

It's actually quite simple: the longer your
melt season that means you can just have more

time to accumulate more melt, and the only
place for this water to go is into the oceans."

(Dr. Francis) Also, there's more fresh water
flowing from rivers into the Arctic ocean.

That fresher water then comes out into the
North Atlantic in that passage between Europe

and Greenland there.

And so we're finding this area of fresher
than normal water just south of Greenland

and the reason it's looking colder than average
there is because when that fresh water is

sitting there it floats because fresh water
is lighter than the salt water.

It sits on top and it prevents that freezing
process and that creation of that very salty,

dense water from happening, it slows it down
anyway.

(Bryce) You can see that on the map--that's
the most contrasting, rapidly contrasting

color area.

(Dr. Francis) Exactly.

(Bryce) It's very clear.

(Dr. Francis) Yes it is.

And it even has a name.

It's called the 'Cold Blob.'

(Bryce) The cold blob?

(Dr. Francis) Yes, it's a very technical term.

(Bryce) Because it just sits.

(Dr. Francis) Yeah, it's been there for several
years and it's a very interesting area.

A lot of people are studying it because not
only does it have this effect on the ocean

circulation, but it also is causing weather
patterns to change in the North Atlantic and

in Europe.

Because whenever you change temperature patterns
in the ocean or on land you affect winds.

And when you affect winds, you affect weather.