Is the Atlantic Overturning Circulation Approaching a Tipping Point?

[knocker]

Article Abstract

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation has a major impact on climate, not just in the northern Atlantic but globally. Paleoclimatic data show it has been unstable in the past, leading to some of the most dramatic and abrupt climate shifts known. These instabilities are due to two different types of tipping points, one linked to amplifying feedbacks in the large-scale salt transport and the other in the convective mixing that drives the flow. These tipping points present a major risk of abrupt ocean circulation and climate shifts as we push our planet further out of the stable Holocene climate into uncharted waters.

https://tos.org/oceanography/article/is-the-atlantic-overturning-circulation-approaching-a-tipping-point

[Hairy Celt]

Reading the last few paragraphs of this paper gives a good indication that society as a whole isn't taking climate change seriously, and our track record suggests we're not about to see a big shift soon... Probably too late to avoid the worst impacts on our descendants.

[topo]

https://en.vedur.is/media/ads_in_header/AMOC-letter_Final.pdf

Open Letter by Climate Scientists to the Nordic Council of Ministers .

"We, the undersigned, are scientists working in the field of climate research and feel it is urgent to draw the attention of the Nordic Council of Ministers to the serious risk of a major ocean circulation change in the Atlantic. A string of scientific studies in the past few years suggests that this risk has so far been greatly underestimated. Such an ocean circulation change would have devastating and irreversible impacts especially for Nordic countries, but also for other parts of the world. "