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Climate scientists warn: Gulf Stream in state of collapse - study
Jerusalem Post ^ | AUGUST 8, 2021 | SHIRA SILKOFF

Posted on 08/09/2021 5:42:33 AM PDT by bert

The AMOC, which contains the Gulf Stream, is currently at its weakest state in over 1,000 years, and new evidence has indicated that it could already be nearing complete shutdown.

Climate scientists have detected early warning signs that the Gulf Stream is in a state of collapse, indicating that it may have already been losing stability over the last century, which could lead to severe consequences for the climate, a new study reported.

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is a major Atlantic ocean current, to which the Gulf Stream belongs, and at the top of the ocean it transports warm water masses from the tropics northward, while cold water is transported south, at the ocean bottom. It influences weather systems worldwide, making the consequences of a potential collapse all the more dangerous. The AMOC is currently at its weakest state in over 1,000 years, meaning the currents have slowed, and new evidence has indicated that it could already be nearing complete shutdown. Such an event is considered one of the tipping points of climate change, which are defined as large, fast, and irreversible changes to the climate.

In the event of the AMOC collapse, rainfall would be disrupted in India, South America and West Africa, which would cause mass food shortages. Increasing storms and colder temperatures would be felt across Europe, and the sea level would rise off the eastern coast of North America. The Amazon rainforest and Antarctic ice sheets would be further endangered.

However, due to the complex nature of the AMOC, and the uncertainty of future global warming caused by tipping points, there is no way of knowing how close to total collapse the system is. Scientists say it could happen within the next decade at soonest, but that several centuries could still pass before it does, and that there is no way to accurately estimate the time-frame. "We urgently need to reconcile our models with the presented observational evidence to assess how far from or how close to its critical threshold the AMOC really is," said author of the study, Niklas Boers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Freie Universität Berlin and Exeter University. Boers explained that the C02 level which would trigger an AMOC collapse is also unknown, which means that the only possible thing to do in order to prevent it from happening is to keep emissions as low as possible.

"The likelihood of this extremely high-impact event happening increases with every gram of C02 we put into the atmosphere," he stated.

A number of factors besides C02 emissions also factor into the breakdown of the AMOC system, including freshwater inflow, which is also directly linked to climate change. As the Greenland ice sheet melts, it increases the amount of freshwater flowing into the sea. Freshwater is lighter than saltwater which means it prevents water from sinking to the bottom of the ocean, a process which is key to the continued movement of the AMOC.

While the timeframe and exact trigger for the event are unknown, scientists are certain about one thing - that the collapse of the AMOC must never be allowed to happen.


TOPICS: Weather
KEYWORDS: amoccollapse; climatechange; gulfstream
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To: HartleyMBaldwin

Betty White ?


41 posted on 08/09/2021 7:40:17 AM PDT by al baby (Hi Mom Hi Dad)
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To: bert
...and the sea level would rise off the eastern coast of North America...
...due to the complex nature of the AMOC, and the uncertainty of future global warming caused by tipping points, there is no way of knowing how close to total collapse the system is. Scientists say it could happen within the next decade at soonest, but that several centuries could still pass before it does...
...Boers explained that the C02 level which would trigger an AMOC collapse is also unknown...
"The likelihood of this extremely high-impact event happening increases with every gram of C02 we put into the atmosphere," he stated.

Typical 'climate change' BS: repeated claims that "WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!", interspersed with equal numbers of 'factually challenged' statements & professional @ss-covering caveats, followed by recommendations for mandatory freedom-ending emergency measures. All it really proves is that they really don't know & can't predict anything, but want the government to control every aspect of our lives anyway...

42 posted on 08/09/2021 7:45:22 AM PDT by Who is John Galt? ("He therefore who may resist, must be allowed to strike." - John Locke)
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To: HighSierra5

I laughed so hard to through that entire movie. Just about passed out.

The foreshadowing of the wolves escape was particularly humerous !


43 posted on 08/09/2021 8:11:55 AM PDT by Pikachu_Dad ("the media are selling you a line of soap)
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

Micheal Chricton(so?)’s ‘State of Fear’ is an excellent read.


44 posted on 08/09/2021 8:13:24 AM PDT by Pikachu_Dad ("the media are selling you a line of soap)
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

Micheal Chricton(so?)’s ‘State of Fear’ is an excellent read.


45 posted on 08/09/2021 8:13:25 AM PDT by Pikachu_Dad ("the media are selling you a line of soap)
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To: bert

Everyone wants some of the New Green Deal the Democrats are putting together


46 posted on 08/09/2021 8:22:25 AM PDT by butlerweave
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To: bert

From the article:

“However, due to the complex nature of the AMOC, and the uncertainty of future global warming caused by tipping points, there is no way of knowing how close to total collapse the system is. Scientists say it could happen within the next decade at soonest, but that several centuries could still pass before it does, and that there is no way to accurately estimate the time-frame.”

Decades or centuries? A paragraph within the article that says they don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.


47 posted on 08/09/2021 8:27:33 AM PDT by suthener ( )
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To: bert

Add that to the list of doom and gloom predictions that never happened. Anyone remember the ozone hole, the population bomb that was to end the world in the year 2000, nuclear winter, global cooling due to pollution that was to give us another Ice Age, the swine flu, the Alaskan pipeline that was certainly going to turn the tundra into an oil soaked moonscape etc.?


48 posted on 08/09/2021 8:37:51 AM PDT by The Great RJ ("Socialists are happy until they run out of people's money." Margaret Thatcher)
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To: bert

Then that means the earth is no longer rotating.

WE’RE DOOOOOOOOOMED.


49 posted on 08/09/2021 8:41:06 AM PDT by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes.)
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To: ThunderSleeps

This “unprecedented heat wave” in the PNW, where I live, is being blamed on global warming because it is hot. A few cultists corrected it to “climate change,” Yes, it was 30 degrees above average for that time of year. So I asked our resident local rag doomsayer “You know for certainty what the weather will be in a 100 years. But why didn’t you predict this a month ago so we could get air conditioners to those at risk.” The usual, “Weather is not climate, except when it is.”


50 posted on 08/09/2021 8:46:21 AM PDT by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes.)
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To: bert

Sooooooooooooooo many unkonwns, yet still they make the claims.

Science has become “science” and sometimes not science at all.


51 posted on 08/09/2021 8:54:35 AM PDT by Wuli
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To: Larry Lucido

I like airstreams!


52 posted on 08/09/2021 9:06:58 AM PDT by zeugma (Stop deluding yourself that America is still a free country.)
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To: bert

Sounds like a DAMN GOOD reason to hurry up and start burning coal again.


53 posted on 08/09/2021 9:07:57 AM PDT by BobL (I shop at Walmart and eat at McDonald's, I just don't tell anyone, like most here.)
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To: Dr. Sivana

Wassup!

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


54 posted on 08/09/2021 9:09:14 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: bert

FTA:.... the Gulf Stream, is currently at its weakest state in over 1,000 years

The gulfstream was discovered less then 400 hundred years ago and zero recorded measurements have been done for most of that time. That water is connected to the rest of the worlds oceans yet we are told the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation will collapse?

I would like to see their actual in the field measurements and not some computer program guessing which way the water flows and the temperature up or down.


55 posted on 08/09/2021 9:21:10 AM PDT by minnesota_bound (I need more money. )
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To: bert

I thought the oceans were supposed to be warming up? Maybe that would make the currents weaker, but the warmer water would sort-of even things out for the UK. Let me check my computer models & get back to you in about 12 years.


56 posted on 08/09/2021 9:21:25 PM PDT by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> --- )
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To: bert
This does give me concern, unlike the junk science that has been pedaled the last 40 years. (The Earth ended 20 years ago, doncha know.) If the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Drift shut down, that will almost certainly mean the end of this Global Warm and the beginning of the next Ice Age. And that mean calamity for civilization and humankind.

What gives me comfort is this theory is being pedaled by the same assclowns who have been shilling their global warming nonsense. I'll get worried when real scientists come to the same conclusion.

57 posted on 08/09/2021 9:33:22 PM PDT by colorado tanker
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