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Scientists detect sign that a crucial ocean current is near collapse
WaPo ^ | 25/7/23 | Sarah Kaplan

Posted on 07/29/2023 11:08:39 AM PDT by Eleutheria5

The Atlantic Ocean’s sensitive circulation system has become slower and less resilient, according to a new analysis of 150 years of temperature data — raising the possibility that this crucial element of the climate system could collapse within the next few decades.

Scientists have long seen the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, as one of the planet’s most vulnerable “tipping elements” — meaning the system could undergo an abrupt and irreversible change, with dramatic consequences for the rest of the globe. Under Earth’s current climate, this aquatic conveyor belt transports warm, salty water from the tropics to the North Atlantic, and then sends colder water back south along the ocean floor. But as rising global temperatures melt Arctic ice, the resulting influx of cold freshwater has thrown a wrench in the system — and could shut it down entirely.

The study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications suggests that continued warming will push the AMOC over its “tipping point” around the middle of this century. The shift would be as abrupt and irreversible as turning off a light switch, and it could lead to dramatic changes in weather on either side of the Atlantic.

“This is a really worrying result,” said Peter Ditlevsen, a climate physicist at the University of Copenhagen and lead author of the new study. “This is really showing we need a hard foot on the brake” of greenhouse gas emissions.

.....

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; Political Humor/Cartoons
KEYWORDS: bs; bunk; climatechange; climatepanic; globalwarming; greenhousegas; oceans; polarice
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To: ckilmer

Reminds me of a SI-FI mystery I read maybe sixty years ago! A villain is planning to raise the sea levels by blowing up undersea cliffs in the North Atlantic that turns the Gulf Stream away from the Arctic, therefore warming the arctic and flooding the world. Kind of like an early Glo-Bull Warming but faster.


101 posted on 07/29/2023 3:19:49 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (“No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session.”)
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To: Eleutheria5

IF the word “COULD” were BANNED from the language——

MSM would not have anything to bombshell us with.


102 posted on 07/29/2023 4:26:32 PM PDT by ridesthemiles
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To: Eleutheria5

This conveyor has stopped in the past and it results it colder temps and glacierization and freezing of. Northern latitudes.


103 posted on 07/29/2023 4:29:56 PM PDT by HamiltonJay
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To: Eleutheria5

OH NO!! Cue dennis quaid it’s the day after tomorrow!

run for your very lives and watch out for the wolves.


104 posted on 07/29/2023 5:19:59 PM PDT by Samurai_Jack (This is not about hypocrisy, this is about hierarchy!)
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To: Eleutheria5

I think washing parents mouth out with soap first!!


105 posted on 07/29/2023 6:10:35 PM PDT by dkGba
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To: Eleutheria5
But as rising global temperatures melt Arctic ice, the resulting influx of cold freshwater has thrown a wrench in the system — and could shut it down entirely.

Ain't Evolution WONDERFUL!!

106 posted on 07/30/2023 4:45:29 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Toddsterpatriot

The ones in the ocean are creating this drag, you see.


107 posted on 07/30/2023 4:47:11 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: lurk

What about Would, Should, and Might?


108 posted on 07/30/2023 4:48:50 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Flavious_Maximus

A Skeptic!!

Probably a Denier; too!!!


109 posted on 07/30/2023 4:51:45 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: ridesthemiles
MSM would not have anything to bombshell us with.

But we'll always have the typo police...


MSM would not have anything with which to bombshell us.


It's a possibility...

110 posted on 07/30/2023 4:54:32 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Eleutheria5

It’s not saying much


111 posted on 07/30/2023 7:59:39 AM PDT by Vaduz (....)
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To: Eleutheria5
"could collapse within the next few decades"

And, maybe, could NOT collapse.

112 posted on 07/30/2023 9:51:23 AM PDT by Former Proud Canadian (Proud member of the control group)
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To: rlmorel

Cool graphs! But what does “rejected energy” mean? Energy lost due to inefficiencies?


113 posted on 08/06/2023 7:52:55 AM PDT by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: Eleutheria5
Scientists detect sign that a crucial ocean current is near collapse

Drama much? 🙄

114 posted on 09/08/2023 9:35:55 PM PDT by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: BradyLS

Thread resurrection! 😀


115 posted on 09/08/2023 9:37:01 PM PDT by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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