A study suggests that the globally decisive Atlantic water transport mechanism threatens to grind to a halt as a result of the global warming effect of current greenhouse gas emission levels.

In 2018, two separate investigations came to the same conclusion: the planet’s circulatory system was weakening. The main set of ocean currents that carry immense amounts of water from tropical to northern seas would be slowing down due to the impact of climate change. The latest UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, published this year, reached the same conclusion. But now, a new paper goes further, arguing that the so-called Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) will collapse in the coming decades if greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced now. The article even puts the date at around 2057. But other scientists argue that there is not enough data to expect a collapse.

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