N.Atlantic climate shift see-saws on South: study

OSLO (Reuters) – Any abrupt climate changes in the North Atlantic region have a quick see-saw effect on the South Atlantic and affect weather around the globe rather than just locally, scientists said on Wednesday.

A study of ocean sediments from the last Ice Age in the South Atlantic backed theories that a sudden cooling or warming of the Northern Hemisphere causes an opposite effect in the south, they said.

Until now, scientists studying rapid temperature swings, caused by natural variations during the Ice Age that ended 10,000 years ago, lacked clear evidence of the see-saw link. Study of the chemical makeup of ocean sediments helped reconstruct ancient temperatures.

“Very large and abrupt changes in temperature recorded over Greenland and across the North Atlantic during the last Ice Age were actually global in extent,” Cardiff University said of the study.

“It confirms predictions that abrupt climate change is global in nature,” said Stephen Barker of Cardiff University, who was lead author of the paper in the journal Nature along with other experts in Britain and the United States.

Reuters