How does our Climate System Evolve as the AMOC Shuts Down?

In my next to last video (not the Newton one:) I talked about the profound slowdown of Antarctica Bottom Water (AABW) recharge, weakening the Thermohaline Circulation (THC) system of the global oceans. In this video I revisit the key peer-reviewed scientific papers of Antarctica changes, and then expand this to additional research on the Southern Hemisphere Meridional Overturning Circulation, and then connect it to the northern hemispheric AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Ocean Circulation). I ask the simple question: how does the system change when the AMOC shuts down? We don’t have all the answers, but we have some. Essentially the Northern regions go into a deep freeze (coastal Norway drops 20C), sea ice extends to Ireland, the tropics heat up a huge amount, the Walker Circulation strengthens, so we lose El Niño’s and get many more La Niña’s. Everything changes, and we have trouble growing enough food for the planet. Reference 15 is the key paper: if you read only one this is the one!! Links: 1) Slowdown of Antarctic Bottom Water export driven by climatic wind and sea-ice changes: 2) Recent reduced abyssal overturning and ventilation in the Australian Antarctic Basin: 3) Unavoidable future increase in West Antarctic ice-shelf melting over the twenty-first century: 4) Large-scale drivers of the exceptionally low winter Antarctic sea ice extent in 2023: 5) Impacts of recent Antarctic Sea-Ice Extremes: 6) Observational Evidence for a Regime Shift in Summer Antarctic Sea Ice: 7) Thermohaline circulation: 8) The Global Conveyor Belt: 9) The Thermohaline Ocean Circulation A Brief Fact Sheet - by Stefan Rahmstorf: ~stefan/ 10) Thermohaline Ocean Circulation: ~stefan/Publications/Book_chapters/ 11) Slowdown of the Motion of the Ocean: 12) Human-induced changes in the global meridional overturning circulation are emerging from the Southern Ocean 13) Southern Ocean overturning circulation: 14)The weakening AMOC under extreme climate change: 15) Interbasin and interhemispheric impacts of a collapsed Atlantic Overturning Circulation: Please donate to to support my research and videos joining the dots on abrupt climate system mayhem.
Back to Top