If so, the implications are extremely daunting. A possible bright spot is that the time required for climate change to reach these high levels is more than a couple of centuries away. Illustrations Figure 1. The increase in surface air temperature and the rise of sea level is in response to the increased concentration of atmospheric CO2. The arrows indicate the sense of the circulation, while the numbers indicate the strength of the circulation.
Units are Sverdrups.
Note that almost all of the deep circulation is absent in panel 2. The Supplementary Report to the IPCC Scientific Assessment, J.D. Houghton, B.A. Callander and S.K. Varney, eds.