Because of climate change, catastrophic effects of the collapse of the Atlantic Ocean currents

Climate change is slowing the conveyor belt of ocean currents that bring warm waters from the tropics to the North Atlantic.

A recent study published June 6 in Nature Climate Change found that the collapse of this system - called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) - is from It would turn Earth's climate into a La Niña-like state, meaning more torrential rains in eastern Australia and worse droughts and seasons than wildfires in the southwestern United States.

Volatility currents and their effects

As the research team says in a report on the study published on The Conversation website, the residents of the east coast of Australia know what the relentless “La Nina” phenomenon looks like, as climate change has loaded our atmosphere with moist air, while Repeated over two summers, the La Nina phenomenon warmed the ocean in northern Australia, contributing to some of the wettest conditions on record, with record flooding in New South Wales and Queensland.

Meanwhile, record drought and severe wildfires in southwestern North America are putting enormous pressure on relief and agriculture lines, with the 2021 fires alone estimated to cost at least $70 billion.

Warm tropical waters flow into the North Atlantic, helping to maintain a temperate European climate (The Conversion)

The research team at the Australian Center for Excellence in Antarctic Science (ACEAS) of the Australian Research Center at the University of New South Wales in Sydney explains in the report referred to, that these currents consist of a massive influx of warm tropical waters into the North Atlantic Ocean. , helping to keep the European climate temperate, while allowing the tropics to lose excess heat, and similar currents from the north can be found stirring Antarctic waters in the Southern Hemisphere.

Climate records - dating back 120,000 years - reveal that the Atlantic Southern turbulent currents stopped or slowed significantly during ice ages, and that they return to movement and cool the European climate during the so-called "interglacial periods" when the Earth's climate is warmer, and that since About 5,000 years ago, the Southern Atlantic Ocean currents were relatively stable, but over the past few decades their slowdown has been observed, and this has alarmed scientists.

The slowdown and its consequences

The researchers also mention in the article that one of the clear consequences of global warming is the melting of the polar ice caps in Greenland and Antarctica, and when these ice caps melt, they empty huge amounts of fresh water into the oceans, making the fresh water more buoyant and reducing the sinking of dense water at latitudes high.

The collapse of the pervasive currents of the North Atlantic and Antarctica would profoundly alter the composition of the world’s oceans. The halting of water agitation would drown freshwater and leave the ocean water depleted of oxygen, and the upper ocean would become devoid of the nutrients that flow when the deep waters float from the depths of the ocean, and thus The effects on marine ecosystems would be catastrophic.

The collapse of the North Atlantic cyclone can be felt as far south as Antarctica (Shutterstock)

In this study, the researchers used a global global model to examine what the Earth's climate would look like in light of this collapse. They stopped the Atlantic fluctuation currents by modeling the pumping of large amounts of meltwater into the North Atlantic Ocean, and then compared it to an equivalent path with no meltwater.

The researchers focused on looking beyond known regional influences across Europe and North America, and investigating how the Earth's climate changed in remote locations as far south as Antarctica. from the heat south of the equator.

This excess heat from the tropical Atlantic pushes more warm moist air into the upper troposphere (about 10 kilometers into the atmosphere), causing dry air to descend over the eastern Pacific Ocean. Indonesian, and this helps put the tropical Pacific Ocean in a state similar to the "La Nina" phenomenon.

It has also been shown that the Atlantic fluctuation currents will be felt as far south as Antarctica, and the rise of warm air over the western Pacific will lead to changes in the winds that spread south of Antarctica, resulting in a deepening of the low pressure system over the Amundsen Sea which lies off West Antarctica, this low pressure system is known to affect ice sheets and lead to ice shelf melt, ocean circulation and sea ice extension as far west as the Ross Sea.

La Nina brings wet weather to Australia and drought and wildfires to the southwestern United States (Noah Berger)

new world order

At no time in Earth's history - apart from meteorites and giant volcanoes - has our climate system been shaken by changes in the composition of atmospheric gas as we impose today through our continuous burning of fossil fuels, and the oceans have a role in balancing the Earth's climate, as they slow the pace of The change is by absorbing massive heat and carbon, but the payoff is sea level rise, ice melt, and a significant slowdown in the Atlantic fluctuation currents projected for this century.

We now know that this slowdown will affect not only the North Atlantic, but as far afield as Australia and Antarctica, and we can prevent these changes from happening by developing a new low-carbon economy.