A major system of ocean currents that ferries heat from the tropics to the North Atlantic could shut down far sooner than expected, according to new predictions. Such a collapse would prove catastrophic for Earth's climate.
The system, known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) had previously been measured to be dramatically weakening in conjunction with rising ocean temperatures. Despite this, however, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently announced that climate scientists don't expect the AMOC to totally switch off within the century.
But a new study is now challenging that conclusion, raising the specter of a halted AMOC to as early as 2025.
"Shutting down the AMOC can have very serious consequences for Earth’s climate, for example, by changing how heat and precipitation are distributed globally," study leader Peter Ditlevsen, from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen, said in a statement.