If the AMOC Collapses - Could We Reverse the Damage?

如果北大西洋翻转环流崩溃——我们能否逆转造成的损害?

New Scientist Podcasts

2026-10-16

30 分钟
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Episode 405 The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC)  is a major system of ocean currents that plays a vital role in Earth’s climate. If it collapses, the consequences could be catastrophic. We could see ice-age level winters in Europe, coupled with scalding hot summers - and impacts on food production around the world. The trouble is it’s already weakening. That’s why scientists are building an early warning system that'll warn us of imminent AMOC collapse. But will a warning come soon enough for us to act - and will anyone actually listen? The team explains how the warning system would work, what happens if the AMOC does collapse and how soon it could happen. Plus they look at new research which suggests the AMOC may not be a classic tipping point - because we may be able to resuscitate it even if it stops. To discuss this, Penny Sarchet and Rowan Hooper are joined by climate reporters Alec Luhn and Madeleine Cuff.  To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/ Image Credit: Tipping Points: CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=148459736 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  • The AMOC, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, is the ocean current

  • that transports 1.2 petawatts of heat from the Gulf of Mexico to Europe.

  • That's 100 times more power than the energy used by all humans on the planet.

  • It's unreal.

  • It's really unreal.

  • To get an idea of the kind of change that impacts that makes on the planet,

  • the average January temperature in Bergen, Norway, is around 2.6 degrees Celsius.

  • Well, at almost the same latitude in Anchorage, Alaska, it's minus 8.4 degrees Celsius.

  • So we've talked before about the catastrophic possibility of this ocean current collapsing.

  • Without the AMOC, Europe would look like it did in the Ice Age for half the year.

  • And for the rest of the year, there'd be drought.

  • Conventional agriculture would basically be impossible.

  • Yeah, if this happened, hundreds of millions of people would be displaced at risk of starvation.

  • And it's not just Europe.

  • Its global stability is based around the AMOC as well.