Scientists have identified warning signs that the Gulf Stream is about to collapse, according to climate scientists. This could be one of the planet's tipping points.Researchers call this the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or the complete loss of stability in the currents over the past century. Although the currents are at their slowest in over 1,600 years, new analysis suggests that they may be closing down.This would have devastating consequences all over the globe, causing disruption to the monsoons, which billions of people rely on for food in India, South America, and West Africa. It also could cause increased storms and lower temperatures in Europe, and pushing up sea levels in the eastern US. It could also put at risk the Amazon rainforest, Antarctic ice sheets.It is difficult to predict the date of any global meltdown due to the complexity of the AMOC system, uncertainty about future global warming levels and the uncertainty surrounding the AMOC system. It could happen in a decade, two or three decades. Or it may be several centuries away. Scientists said that it is impossible to imagine the magnitude of the impact it would have on the planet.It is scary to see the signs of destabilization already. This was Niklas Boers from Germany's Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, who conducted the research. You can't allow it to happen.He said that it is unknown at this time what amount of CO2 would cause an AMOC to collapse. Therefore, the best thing is to keep CO2 emissions as low and as low as possible. With every gram of CO2 we add to the atmosphere, the likelihood of this highly-impact event occurring increases.Scientists are becoming more concerned about climate tipping points, which could lead to drastic and rapid changes in the climate. Boers and his associates reported that the Greenland Ice Sheet is at risk of melting, which could lead to a dramatic rise in global sea levels. Recent research has shown that the Amazon rainforest emits more CO2 than it absorbs and that the 2020 Siberian Heatwave caused alarming methane releases.According to a 2019 analysis, the world may have already reached a number of climate tipping points that could pose a threat to civilisation. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will release a major report on Monday that will outline the increasing severity of the climate crisis.The research was published in Nature Climate Change. It is called Observation-based early warning signals for the collapse of the AMOC. The AMOC is split into two states according to ice-core data and other data over the past 100,000 years. One state is fast and strong, as can be seen in recent millennia. And the second one is slow and weak. These data reveal that rising temperatures can cause the AMOC to abruptly switch between states within a span of one to five years.The Arctic ocean's dense, salty seawater is the driving force behind the AMOC. However, the melting of Greenlands ice sheets is slowing down this process earlier than climate models predicted.Boers used an analogy of a chair as a metaphor to explain how AMOCs instability can be revealed by changes in ocean temperature or salinity. A chair can be moved, but it does not alter its position. However, if its four legs are still on the ground, it will remain stable. Tilting a chair alters its stability and position.Boers was able to demonstrate that global warming is not only changing the flow patterns but also increasing the instability of currents using eight independently measured data sets of temperature and salinity.The analysis concluded that the decline of the AMOC over recent decades may have been associated with a near total loss of stability. It is possible that the AMOC is close to a transition to its weak circulation mode.Levke Caesar from Maynooth University, Ireland, was not part of the new research. He said: Although the study method can't give us an exact time for a possible collapse but the analysis shows that the AMOC has already lost its stability. This I interpret as a warning sign that we may be closer to an AMOC tipping point than we think.David Thornalley from University College London, UK, stated that these signs of declining stability are worrying. We don't know yet if there will be a collapse or how close we may be to it.
