Ever since the days he walked around the fossilized lake basin in Nevada while preparing his doctoral thesis, Wally Broecker had been interested in sudden climate fluctuations. The reported sudden jumps in carbon dioxide amounts in Greenland ice cores spurred him to connect these interests with his interest in oceanography. The result was surprising and important calculations. The secret was what Broecker later described as a 'great conveyor belt' of ocean water that transports heat northward. The energy transported to the vicinity of Iceland is 'astonishing,' as Broecker realized, as it is nearly a third of what the sun sends to the entire North Atlantic. If something were to happen to stop this belt, the climate would change across most of the Northern Hemisphere. There was reason to believe such a shutdown could happen quickly. Broecker was a pioneer in bringing this disturbing news to the public. In 1987, he wrote that we were treating the greenhouse effect as a 'cocktail hour curiosity,' but now 'we must view it as a threat to humanity and wildlife.' The system is a capricious beast, he stated, and we are poking it with a sharp stick.

• Publishing house: Arab Scientific Publishers/Lebanon
• Author: Spencer R. Weart
• ISBN: 9953297681
• Number of Pages: 231
• Year of publication: 2004
• Number of volumes: 1
• Cover Type: Paperback