Your response took a terrifying turn at the end there.

Are there any examples on the climatic record of the Gulf Stream collapsing to help shed some light on the potential outcomes?

The thing people really have to understand about climate change is how unprecedented the impact of many of the changes coming are. I mean if you look at a globe you should immediately see that most of Europe is North of the United States. The reason it's comfortable to live there an agriculture is possible is the Gulf Stream.

But forget the Gulf Stream, you should learn more about the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC)[0], which also could be shut down. There is geological evidence that such a shut down would turn the Atlantic ocean anoxic, literally turning the ocean toxic.

This isn't some wacky, doomer fantasy scenario, this has happened multiple times in Earth's history when CO2 levels and temperatures have risen and been responsible for multiple mass extinction events[1]. It's also worth pointing out that the AMOC is already showing evidence of weakening [2]

A good overview of this paleontologist Peter Ward's Under a Green Sky.

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_meridional_overturnin...

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anoxic_event

2. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aaz4876

To show how long this has been known and ignored I offer this somewhat manic sci-fi short story [0] written by my grandfather 101 years ago, in which a megalomaniacal ecologist has shut down the Gulf Stream by choking it off between Miami and the Bahamas.

[0] http://www.angel.net/~nic/jegers-mentoen-annihilator.html

Total aside, but that's a very nice piece of family history. And a neat short story, too! Thanks for sharing it.

Thank you for my daily dose of existential dread. I can now safely logout of the internet.

I remember a geography teacher talking about this decades ago at school. He said to compare Europe's mild climate to Canada's at the same latitude, and that Europe might be a lot colder in winter with the Gulf Stream halted.

It would be. Coastal zones (say within 100 km of open sea) would still see some tempering effects but not on the same scale and further inland it would instantly be the same climate as you saw in Poland or Russia 40 years ago. And further East it will be worse still. The Gulf Stream is what keeps Northern Europe habitable.

Rumors are and ice age, which seems ironic.

"Wow and those stupid libs were saying global warming! Idiots!"

I can already hear them screeching.

Yeah some people lack brains to understand that a global change doesn't imply local changes going the other direction. The example I give them is usually: Your neighborhood can get richer and you can loose your job.

The easier path is global warming -> more energy in the atmosphere -> more extreme weather.

This is so simple and eloquent. And equally terrifying.

What if? (name of the channel I found)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzCvY0ENrhk

I think it's a reasonable prediction on a global scale, but as you correctly point out, that might not be a useful scale for individuals living through it