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submitted 8 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

Scientists are sounding the alarm that a crucial component of the planet’s climate system is in gradual decline and could one day reach a tipping point that would radically alter global weather patterns.

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, is a system of ocean currents that circulate water in the Atlantic Ocean like a conveyor belt, helping to redistribute heat and regulate global and regional climates. New research, however, warns that the AMOC is weakening under a warming climate, and could potentially suffer a dangerous and abrupt collapse with worldwide consequences.

“This is bad news for the climate system and humanity,” researchers from Utrecht University’s Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research wrote in a new study published in the journal Science Advances.

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[-] NegativeLookBehind@lemmy.world 73 points 8 months ago

Won’t somebody think about the profits?

[-] Zachariah@lemmy.world 29 points 8 months ago

exactly what the profits predicted

[-] NegativeLookBehind@lemmy.world 17 points 8 months ago

The profits always know best!

[-] Zachariah@lemmy.world 16 points 8 months ago

such wise profits

[-] awkwardparticle@kbin.social 12 points 8 months ago

There Is No Business to Be Done on a Dead Planet

[-] XTornado@lemmy.ml 3 points 8 months ago

I do think about them.... I do not get any... but I think about them. 🤔

[-] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 45 points 8 months ago

tipping point scenarios are very horrifying. And all the global warming deniers will probably be like "but it wasn't because of global warming it was because this ocean current collapsed!"

[-] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 8 points 8 months ago

We told all those fish that if they kept swimming the way they were this would happen.

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[-] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 40 points 8 months ago

The gulf stream is weakening and could collapse too. I'm tired of living in interesting times.

[-] Szymon@lemmy.ca 28 points 8 months ago

Why do you think the ultra rich are building themselves doomsday bunkers? Conflict and disaster are coming.

They believe the science they're asking you to ignore. They also believe they're not planning to stop anything.

[-] tryptaminev@feddit.de 14 points 8 months ago

Which shows why obsecenely rich people need to be kept at bay. Anyone who builds a doomsday bunker while profiting off the destruction of the climate is a genocidal mass murderer who enjoys killing people.

Living in a doomsday bunker is so much fucking worse than living in a sustainable society, while being just very rich instead of obsecenely rich.

[-] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago
[-] Szymon@lemmy.ca 2 points 8 months ago

The first one gets shock

The second one gets attention

The third one develops the pattern

Suddenly redistributing wealth is important for our economy and society more than it was before the first.

[-] m13@lemmy.world 3 points 8 months ago

It’s not just immorality of it, it’s the absolutely fucked logic of it. How many of them have actually thought through the scenario in which they have to actually use their doomsday bunker? How long will their supplies last? How many people they pay to help them would still do so after the value of money drops to nothing? They won’t last long.

[-] sizzler@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Russia becomes the most fertile country if global warming occurs

[-] bzarb8ni@lemm.ee 28 points 8 months ago

Anyone else feeling deflated?

[-] protist@mander.xyz 20 points 8 months ago

On the bright side, it says in the article they figure there's a 95% chance this will not happen in the next 75 years, and that we don't know enough about the natural variability in the current to draw up any significant conclusions. They said the last time the current shut down was after the last ice age, when a significantly larger amount of freshwater melted into the oceans than is melting today

[-] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 8 points 8 months ago

I've just given up, the world won't change so I just accept that climate disasters will happen and live day to day until disaster hits my area. Definitely not having kids that's for sure.

[-] fireweed@lemmy.world 15 points 8 months ago

Good article; this news has been making the rounds for quite some time, but this article actually goes into more thorough detail re: what various effects we might see worldwide.

[-] Vieric@lemmy.world 14 points 8 months ago

Oh, don't worry, we will ignore this too... We're all gonna turn this planet into a living hell for ourselves, and as a species, we will completely deserve the consequences.

[-] SendMePhotos@lemmy.world 8 points 8 months ago

But not me. I want change. I want to put nature first... This sucks.

[-] bashbeerbash@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

we're going to vote/choose ourselves into pockets of extremism and then wipe each other out.

[-] Colour_me_triggered@lemm.ee 6 points 8 months ago

If everyone were allowed to work from home for jobs that don't require physical presence, this would pretty much sort itself out. Also take the train instead of flying.

[-] Anise@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 8 months ago

While I agree that remote work is positive for the climate 1 )I think you overestimate the number of jobs that can be done remotely. 2) Emissions shift from transportation to home climate control, which may be a net positive in most cases but not necessarily.

It is a start but we need bigger policy changes than that for it to "sort itself out"

[-] Colour_me_triggered@lemm.ee 1 points 8 months ago

Transportation already accounts for more carbon emissions than electricity generation. Green Energy is phasing out fossil fuels in most places albeit slowly. Unless you live somewhere with a fairly extreme climate you don't really need to use that much energy on climate control. I live in the Arctic and only run one heater in the whole apartment and only intermittently. AC uses less electricity than heating. The laptop I use uses the same amount of electricity whether I use it at home or the office. And I realise that there are many jobs that can't be done from home but it's ridiculous to not allow office workers to work from home.

Many of my colleagues burn a liter of diesel a day commuting to work. And that's in a place where you don't idle in traffic for an hour. If anyone who had an office job in LA for example just wasn't in traffic, you can bet your ass the air would be cleaner.

And yes you're right about needing wide scale policy changes. One of the big ones would be investing in high speed rail. Way more environmentally friendly than either flying or driving and more comfortable. And for many journeys doesn't actually take longer than flying. When you consider staking a half hour shuttle bus to the airport, waiting a half hour to get through security, hanging around at the gate, waiting for luggage, shuttle bus from the airport at the other end. It's actually quicker to take the train from London to Paris than it is to fly, more environmentally friendly, but still costs more.

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[-] Zippit@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

At this point, I don't care anymore. We're effed anyway, there is no future for us... Even when aliens landed and took over the world it wouldn't surprise me. Maybe they'll do a better job.

[-] BestBouclettes@jlai.lu 16 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

That's a problematic way to think about it though. We can still get away with it, it's gonna be bad and loads of people will die and the world will be fucked, but it will be nothing compared to what might happen if we give up and let capitalists steamroll us.
Being apathetic leads to inaction and that's the opposite of what's needed right now. Even if it feels small and pointless, it's still something that can lead to a better future by composite effect (single snowflake in the avalanche kind of thing).

[-] aniki@lemm.ee 3 points 8 months ago

BTW friendly reminder that by the time this is posted and the time you read it we'll be releasing even more CO2 than any moment in history before. Not only have we not done a fucking thing about climate change, the rate we create CO2 has only increased.

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this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2024
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