NST Leader: The big thaw

According to a study published on March 30 in Nature, a science journal, under a normal ice melt scenario, denser water flows to the sea floor, carrying with it heat, oxygen and life-sustaining nutrients. Carbon emissions have changed all this. As the Earth gets warmer, rapid ice melts in the Antarctic are a regular occurrence, during which massive volumes of freshwater enter the world’s oceans, diluting their salinity and density, and thereby slowing the downward flow of dense water to the ocean floor.