Featured Image Credit: NASA
The world is a scary place right now, and not just because missiles are raining from the sky and the eyes of the world are on who will press their big red button first.
Away from concerns that artificial intelligence could eradicate the human race, World War III will bomb us into oblivion, and city-killing asteroids could end our lives, the general state of the planet has some of us staying awake at night.
With sinking cities and others being described as 'sitting ducks' when it comes to natural disasters, there are now fears that the Gulf Stream could be about to collapse and bring an apocalyptic catastrophe with it.
Described as 'the conveyor belt of the ocean', the Gulf Stream is just a small cog in the much larger Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). The AMOC helps regulate temperatures around Europe and the USA, transporting warm and salty water from the ocean's surface in the tropics up into the northern hemisphere.
Advert
Scientists have warned that the Gulf Stream has been weakening for the past 100 years, and while we might currently be in the midst of unprecedented heatwaves, its collapse could plunge Europe into a 'deep freeze'.
Scientists from the University of California claim that temperatures in Europe could drop to as low as -22°F. According to study author Professor Wei Liu: "This work shows the AMOC has been weakening for more than a century. That trend is likely to continue if greenhouse gases keep rising."
Published in Communications Earth & Environment, the study is titled "Weakened Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation causes the historical North Atlantic Warming Hole".
Researchers point to a 1,000-mile-wide patch of cold water that lies to the south of Greenland and Iceland. This 'stubborn' patch of cold water has managed to resist global warming for over a century.
Liu added: "People have been asking why this cold spot exists; we found the most likely answer is a weakening AMOC."
With the AMOC slowing down, less salt reaches the North Atlantic, which leads to cooler and fresher water.
The team tested the long-term salinity and temperature records by reconstructing changes in the circulation system for nearly 100 different climate models. It was only the models with a weakened Gulf Stream that matched the real-world data and managed to recreate the cold blob.
Referring to 'very robust correlation', Liu added: "If you look at the observations and compare them with all the simulations, only the weakened-AMOC scenario reproduces the cooling in this one region."
Some climate scientists previously blamed the patch on aerosol pollution, but thanks to Liu and the team, a weakened AMOC looks to be the cause.
Foreshadowing a grim future, he concluded: "The overall impact on ecosystems and weather patterns, both in the Arctic and globally, could still be severe."
Speaking to MailOnline, climate scientist Professor David Thornalley suggested that the climate in the United Kingdom could end up being similar to Scandinavia: "Unfortunately people would die due to stronger winter storms and flooding, and many old and young would be vulnerable to the very cold winter temperatures."
More than this, an AMOC collapse would cause the worldwide tropical rainfall belt to shift, leading to drought, famine, and flooding "in countries that are already struggling to deal with these issues."
Just one more apocalyptic worry to add to the list.
