Is the education system a mess? My thoughts exactly.

Recall that the Gulf Stream is not the same as the Thermohaine Circulation (THC). The Gulf Stream spreads out as it leaves the U.S. coast and becomes the North Atlantic Drift Current. Only a fraction of the waters of the Gulf Stream move toward Northern Europe, the majority turns back towards the south and circulates around the sub-tropical gyre. It's the THC branch of the Gulf Stream water which does keep Northern Europe somewhat warmer than the coastal regions at a similar latitude on the North Pacific coast. Both locations are warmer than land areas at similar latitudes on the western side of the respective ocean basins.

But, to get back to reality, Global Warming is an atmospheric problem. The oceans can be expected to warm eventually, but the large mass will mean that the warming of the oceans will lag the warming in the atmosphere. The fact that the oceans are stratified implies that the warming of the deep oceans will be slow. What I was attempting to point to was the physics of the energy flows thru the atmosphere, with the solar input being balanced by the IR leaving. The physics says the balance point is changing, thus increasing the global temperature at the surface.

E. Swanson