It is possible to predict future climate change with the help of information on a prehistoric cold period, which occurred nearly 12,000 years ago. It has been explained by researchers at the University of Texas that the ancient cold period affected the northern hemisphere to a greater extent, while the southern equatorial region was not affected that much.

The research was published on September 2 in Nature Communications. It concentrates on Younger Dryas, a period of global cooling that started when circulation in the North Atlantic Current stopped. As a result of the event, the northern part of the globe went into a deep freeze and temperatures in Greenland decreased by 18 degrees Fahrenheit in less than 10 years.

The same event also led to a decrease in rainfall in places like the Philippines. An interesting thing about the domino effect is how rapidly temperatures fell in Greenland. On the other hand, climate change in the Philippines appeared hundreds of years later.

According to Jud Partin, a research associate at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG) who led the study, “We found that the temperature in Greenland is like a small ship that you can stop and turn quickly because of the influence of sea ice in the region”. Partin added that rainfall in the tropics is similar to a big ship, which takes long to course correct.

Temperature change and rainfall are associated with a common cause i.e. the deceleration of the ocean currents in the North Atlantic.