Up to 30 degrees colder in Europe: Are we facing a new ice age?

The Gulf Stream, which carries warm water from the Caribbean to Europe, overlaps another current. The water in the Caribbean is very salty. It cools as it moves north with the Gulf Stream. Cold and salty water has a very high density. And at some point the water becomes so heavy that it sinks into the depths. This creates a circulation that brings in additional heat from the Caribbean. But if melting ice sheets and rain in the Arctic cause more and more fresh water to enter the North Atlantic, this circulation, the so-called Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current, or AMOC for short, can stop. (Franziska Dzugan, Christina Hiptmayr, more at profile.at)