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.
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).