Scientists are sounding the alarm that a crucial component of the planet’s climate system is in gradual decline and could one day reach a tipping point that would radically alter global weather patterns.
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, is a system of ocean currents that circulate water in the Atlantic Ocean like a conveyor belt, helping to redistribute heat and regulate global and regional climates. New research, however, warns that the AMOC is weakening under a warming climate, and could potentially suffer a dangerous and abrupt collapse with worldwide consequences.
“This is bad news for the climate system and humanity,” researchers from Utrecht University’s Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research wrote in a new study published in the journal Science Advances.
Just a note on this: Currents have broken down in the past.
Yes, and they’ve caused the extinction of the majority of multicellular species each time. The Earth’s history is not stable, we’ve had 5 cataclysmic extinction events in the past and we’re headed straight for a sixth.
That’s pretty much the point.
Yeah, like when little ice age happened.
We are still in an ice age. The classification of it is “permanent ice sheet”, we accelerated it far beyond the natural cycle.