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FILE – People swimming in the Atlantic Ocean in Biarritz, southwestern France, October 27, 2021. (AP Photo/Bob Edme, file)
A vital system of ocean currents in the Atlantic Ocean may be nearing collapse, with scientists warning of dangerous implications for the global climate.
The Atlantic Meridional Circulation (AMOC), which “effectively transports heat and salt through the global ocean,” has recently trended toward a critical “tipping point,” according to a study published Friday in the journal Science Advances. He is showing certain signs.
Scientists have been warning for decades of a possible collapse as the strength of ocean currents weakens with rising temperatures, affecting the system’s heat and salt balance.
Although the study does not give a timeline for when collapse will occur (the AMOC has only been closely monitored since 2004), it predicts it will have a devastating impact on the Euolpe and Amazon rainforests in particular. ing.
According to the study, if the AMOC were to collapse, average temperatures in some parts of Europe could drop by 30 degrees Celsius over 100 years.
Although 100 years seems like a long time, scientists say the potential changes will be noticeable in just a few decades. For example, the temperature in February in Norway can drop by 3.5 ° C in her 10 years.
“There are no realistic adaptation strategies that can cope with such rapid temperature changes,” the study authors wrote.
Similarly, in the Amazon, scientists have noticed “dramatic changes in precipitation patterns” in their models, indicating that “dry seasons are turning into rainy seasons, and vice versa.”
These changes could “severely disrupt the Amazon rainforest ecosystem,” the authors argue.
Another study published by Nature Geoscience found that in 2021, the AMOC is at its weakest point in 1,000 years.
If the system were to collapse, it would “impact everyone on the planet. That’s how big and important it is,” said Peter de Menocal, director of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. told CNN.
See more at New York Daily News
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