Fig. 13.1. The Amazon heat engine and the North Atlantic.
The Amazon Basin is the big heat engine that controls the climate of the Northern Hemisphere, but only when the tropical rainforest is largely
complete. See Note 13.3 (p. 274) for how the Gulf Stream pump works, and the danger of its failure due to fresh water run-off from the
Greenland icecap. Note 13.7 explains how the Amazonian heat engine works.
dana p.
(Dana P.)
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