Zoroastrologicalclimatology

Remember a few years back when the oceanic "conveyor belt" (which helps deliver seasonal temperatures to various parts of the Atlantic) "stopped" working? Remember how everyone was going to die within 15 minutes or so after the "news" broke? Remember how it was all blamed on man-made global warming (née, cooling - née, climate change - née, insert newest newest bogeyman here)?

Any updates of late?

One of the "pumps" contributing to the ocean's global circulation suddenly switched on again last winter for the first time this decade, scientists reported Tuesday (Dec. 23) in Nature Geoscience. The finding surprised scientists, who had been wondering if global warming was inhibiting the pump-which, in turn, would cause other far-reaching climate changes.

Gosh (emphasis mine):

“The obvious question is, why?” wrote Våge, Pickart, and colleagues. Investigating that question, the researchers turned up a myriad of interrelated factors that may have caused Labrador and Irminger Seas water to resume sinking. The complexity of the process makes it difficult to predict future changes in ocean circulation and climate, concluded the research team, which included Virginie Thierry ( Laboratoire de Physique des Océans ), Gilles Reverdin ( Laboratoire d'Océanographie Dynamique et de Climatologie ), Craig M. Lee ( University of Washington ), Brian Petrie ( Bedford Institute of Oceanography ), Tom A. Agnew and Amy Wong ( Meteorological Service of Canada ), and Mads H. Ribergaard ( Danish Meteorological Institute ).

Of course the reason given back in the day for the stoppage of this system was man-made global warming. The reason for the re-start of the very same system now? Natch, man-made global warming:

The scientists noted “that the increased liquid and frozen freshwater flux into the Labrador Sea was probably tied to the large export of sea ice from the Arctic Ocean that contributed to the record minimum in sea-ice extent observed in the summer of 2007. Ironically, this disappearance of Arctic sea ice, which has been linked to global warming, may have helped trigger the return of deep wintertime [water sinking] to the North Atlantic.”

All sides covered, all angles played, all future funding available.