A massive Atlantic Ocean current system, which affects climate, sea levels and weather systems around the world, may be about to be fatally disrupted.
A new report in the journal Nature Climate Change describes how a series of Atlantic Ocean currents have reached “an almost complete loss of stability over the last century” as the planet continues to warm. The report, authored by Dr. Niklas Boers, specifically analyzes data on ocean temperature and salinity to demonstrate that their circulation has weakened over the past few decades. If current trends continue unabated, they may slow to a dangerous level or even shut down entirely.
The series of currents in question is known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC for short. The current system is sometimes likened to a series of conveyer belts: one “belt” flows north with warm water that, upon reaching the northern Atlantic, cools and evaporates, in the process increasing the salinity of water in that region. The saltier water becomes colder and heavier, sinking and flowing south to create a second “belt.” Those two currents are in turn connected by other oceanic […]
Has anyone read “The Key” by Whitley Strieber? It purports to be a recounting of a meeting late at night in his hotel room while on a promotional book tour in 1998. “The Day After Tomorrow” a movie from 2004 is inspired by a prediction of ocean current collapse. The book has a number of other predications that are starting to sound plausible. Whatever one thinks of Strieber it is a short read and kind of fun for a dystopian future nut such as myself.
Yes, and what Strieber described in The Key in the late ’90s about the possible failure of the Atlantic currents is precisely what is only now being understood by science. This is chilling in a most literal sense.