1. Ocean Currents Will Change Course

Thermohaline circulation is a global system of deep-ocean currents. It exists through differences in temperature and saltwater salinity. According to the NOAA, it is the wind that drives surface ocean currents. But the poles and the presence of ice play a key role in creating deep-water currents.

This happens when water freezes into sea ice, increasing the saltiness of the water. The denser, saltier water sinks. Then, it is replaced by less salty water from the surface. This process continues in a cycle known as the global conveyor belt. That move alters how ocean water moves around the world. In turn, it alters how schools of fish, groups of sharks, and other ocean life migrates, lives, and survives.

Antarctica specifically plays a vital role in regulating both temperature and salinity in the southern oceans. And melting sea ice would radically alter those oceans forever. If the Antarctic ice sheet were to disappear, it could have negative consequences. Because Antarctica plays such a major role in controlling the circulation of salt through the area, animal species in the southern hemisphere have adapted to that ecosystem.

Millions of years of evolution would be undone as currents alter course. Fishing stocks would move and disappear, leaving mankind at risk of running out of a major global food source. Other changes in saltwater concentration and freshwater spread would change the course of life for countless water-based species.^[10]

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