Is Climate Change Destroying the Gulf Stream?

Earth’s ocean currents are crucial to the stability of nearly every ecosystem, playing a major role in transporting heat, sequestering carbon, and driving precipitation patterns. However, as climate change melts icecaps and warms surface waters, these currents begin to alter and weaken, threatening the stability of countless systems. There are serious concerns that the Gulf Stream, a part of the AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation) is at risk for this reason and has already seen significant weakening in recent years. Will humanity’s unchecked carbon emissions be enough to collapse the AMOC and push it past its tipping point?

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0:00 Intro
0:54 Ocean Currents
2:11 Greenland Ice Sheet
3:08 Bifurcation Points
4:26 Outro
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References:

[1] Tietsche, S., Balmaseda, M., Zuo, H. et al. The importance of North Atlantic Ocean transports for seasonal forecasts. Clim Dyn 55, 1995–2011 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-020-05364-6

[2] Zhang, Rong, et al. “A Review of the Role of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation in Atlantic Multidecadal Variability and Associated Climate Impacts.” Reviews of Geophysics, vol. 57, no. 2, 2019, pp. 316–375., https://doi.org/10.1029/2019rg000644.

[3] Rousselet, Louise, et al. “Coupling of the Mid-Depth and Abyssal Components of the Global Overturning Circulation According to a State Estimate.” Science Advances, vol. 7, no. 21, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abf5478.

[4] Trusel, L.D., Das, S.B., Osman, M.B. et al. Nonlinear rise in Greenland runoff in response to post-industrial Arctic warming. Nature 564, 104–108 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0752-4

[5] Caesar, L., Rahmstorf, S., Robinson, A. et al. Observed fingerprint of a weakening Atlantic Ocean overturning circulation. Nature 556, 191–196 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0006-5

[6] Lohmann, Johannes, and Peter D. Ditlevsen. “Risk of Tipping the Overturning Circulation Due to Increasing Rates of Ice Melt.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 118, no. 9, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2017989118.

[7] Kim, SK., Kim, HJ., Dijkstra, H.A. et al. Slow and soft passage through tipping point of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation in a changing climate. npj Clim Atmos Sci 5, 13 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41612-022-00236-8

#climatechange #gulfstream #planetzero #tippingpoint #globalwarming

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