Researchers have predicted the collapse of the AMOC could happen any time between 2025 and 2095 — far sooner than previous predictions, although not all scientists are convinced.

=====

What if…

  • rhsJack@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    We could try to vote people who will take action OR incentivize consumers to be more proactive BUT. Neither is ever going to happen.

    I was having dinner with my brother’s family and we were watching an interview with some celebrity that my sister-in-law adores. Dude is heavy in green activism and lists fast food places which are bad actors for climate and also farmers rights, etc. So my SiL announces we are never eating at such and such place again (I can’t remember, I never eat fast food anyway). The very next night they order takeout from said fast food place. They also always order same day deliver from Amazon despite it never actually arriving same day, but they get packages every damn day. Tons and tons of packaging for crap they always throw out or give away to neighbors eventually. This isn’t unique to them.

    This is MOST of America and I suspect the rest of the developed world. We are effed.

    • Dubious_Fart@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      cant elect people in america who would do anything, when we’re busy trying to fend off full blown fourth reichdom by electing the least awful candidate each election.

    • Wanderer@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I posted this twice now.

      But carbon taxes, externality corrections, cost of recycling plastic is in the cost of the product. Let the market fix it all. But no, people won’t even agree to raise taxes on fuel

    • toomanyjoints69@lemmygrad.ml
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      How rich are they to be able to afford that? Most Americans arent Tywin Lannister living in their castle getting fancy mail brought to them.

      • tinwhiskers@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        “Despite being so common in English as to be known as the “Chinese curse”, the saying is apocryphal, and no actual Chinese source has ever been produced.” - Wikipedia

    • Saneless@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      And they know how to fucking fix it but don’t want to

      It’d be like if in the movie Armageddon the government just said “Eh let’s see if it really will be that bad if it hits us”

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              Without some sort of violent revolution, we won’t, or time runs out but it’s not a movie and there’s no ship to another planet.

                • Saneless@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  Revolutions take over where reason stops. The people in power have the means to do the right thing, but sometimes they look out for a few people and will destroy thousands. That’s not a good option, as people get more desperate

      • Dubious_Fart@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        “We could do something about the asteroid, but think of the harm doing something could do to the shareholders!?”

        • Saneless@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I was going to save humanity but I have a responsibility to a handful of shareholders that yell at me in meetings so… You can really see how hard this is for me

      • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        It’s actually kind of too late now.

        But, we may be able to prevent more bad stuff happening if we change things today!

      • DogMuffins@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 year ago

        IDK, I mean we know it’s to do with carbon but we don’t really know how to stop producing that in a timely manner.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        Carbon is causing global warming. We know how to fix global warming because we are causing it, we just have to stop doing it.

        This article is about global cooling which is bizarre and not something we expected would be happening. We haven’t got a clue why it’s doing that. It maybe natural, or it maybe it’s something we’ve done in a complicated way, but we don’t know so we don’t know how to fix it.

        If this is just an ice age why may as well burn all the coal now to try and stave it off.

        Although in reality I think this needs a lot more research before we do anything because this announcement makes no sense within our current understanding of the environmental science.

        • xohshoo@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Umm, no. Go read it again.

          Global warming shuts off the current, so the warm air doesn’t shuttle north, causing local cooling, not global

    • ikiru@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Have you tried being absurdly wealthy?

      I haven’t myself, but I hear it makes it all worth it.

    • agitatedpotato@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I just long for a time when the conspiracy theorists are yelling about the end of the world and the scientists are running the country, not the other way around.

    • nexusband@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The doom depends on where you live. Florida? Yup, probably, but you where already living in hell. Europe? Iced up North Sea, really snowy north, big ice caps, Spain and portugal getting more cool…doesn’t sound that bad, to me personally.

      • Hot Saucerman@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is one of the places least likely to be affected by climate change, based on current models. In the US anyway.

        • nexusband@lemmy.world
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          Mostly florida, as the “AMOC” transports the heat away from florida. Could very well be, that a stoppage of the AMOC would create a Hypercane and completely wreck everything in Florida. Cuba could also be absolutely done for. Canada would also probably have a LOT more snow - the Soutpole however would probably stop existing and what exactly is going to happen to Brazil is a complete unknown. Some simulations show the insta death of the rest of the rain forest. Some simulations actually show the opposite. However, Europe, Africa and Asia probably would see a lot lower temps - what exactly that would mean for the Climate in those areas is also highly speculative - however, it’s something that happened quite often throughout the history of earth. North America however has lots of other parts liveable, when Florida is “dead” and basically the Sahara.

          • NecessaryWeevil@feddit.nl
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            Happened quite often in the past…over the course of thousands of years. Man-made global warming is a very different animal.

            • nexusband@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              No, the collapse of the AMOC was pretty rapid in the past as well. And it’s separate from climate change. Man-made global warming is very complex and there are various things contributing to it.

          • Dubious_Fart@lemmy.ml
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            You are the first person I’ve seen recognize the legitimate fear that these climate issues could result in hypercanes.

            Hurricanes of a size and fury as to not be measurable on current scale, Whose devastation could stretch across half a continent.

            • girthero@lemmy.world
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              Whose devastation could stretch across half a continent.

              Thats one way to stop carbon emissions!

  • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
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    but other scientists are not so sure.

    Is it just me who thinks we should act as if it is going to collapse soon, even if a few scientists aren’t sure?

      • HughJanus@lemmy.ml
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        I really hate this line of thinking.

        “Making the world a better place” would be an enormous sacrifice for most people. There would be massive financial ramifications. Our quality of life would decrease significantly.

        • CosmicSploogeDrizzle@lemmy.world
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          You can’t eat money. Our quality of life is already decreasing because of this. How do you think people’s quality of life in Europe is going to be when the Gulfstream current shuts down and stops bringing warm tropical water to them? Reducing our exploitation of natural resources is not a sacrifice, it’s the right thing to do. What we’ve been doing is wrong.

          • HughJanus@lemmy.ml
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            How do you think people’s quality of life in Europe is going to be when the Gulfstream current shuts down

            I think you missed the hypothetical line of thought I responded to in which this is “all a hoax”.

    • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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      I think it’s more 99.9% of the scientists think it will get proper fucked up in the 2100s, but this one report says it’ll happen in the next few years.

      But we should be doing something about it anyway.

      If we actually cared we’d ban everything that’s fucking the world up, and ban any imports from countries that don’t agree. But if the last 5 years or so have told us anything, it’s that a lot of people don’t care. Even about things that directly affect them.

      • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
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        And people who do care often feel impotent to do anything about it.

        Agree that drastic measures are necessary. It doesn’t even have to mean a drop in living standards; but it will take radical changes to protect (and even raise) those standards.

        Agree about imports. The problem I see is that even if products with a high carbon footprint are imported, it doesn’t mean the person responsible for that carbon footprint isn’t domestic to e.g. (going by your ‘feddit.uk’ handle) the UK. This could still be captured by an import ban (i.e. shareholders can’t just export their emissions and pretend everything is okay), but the people with the power to export their emissions tend to have a lot of power to lobby the government, sit on government decision-making panels, or even choose MPs. They’re unlikely to shoot themselves in the foot like that.

        An example is laptops. They break every few years. For the past decade-or-so, they’re made to be irreparable. They become landfill, and all that embodied carbon is wasted. Today’s laptops don’t even do anything that laptops of 15 years ago couldn’t do, except deal with websites bloated with adverts. It doesn’t matter so much where that consumer item is produced. The problem is the decision to make it so that it breaks and has to be replaced. Those decisions tend to be made in the west by people who will never willingly change their ways. It’s all about profit.

        I think part of the reason that people feel apathetic is that they know it’s all about profit and are convinced that a system based on profit is the only way, so there’s nothing to be done. Another way is possible, though, people just need to be organised and educated§ to achieve it.


        § I mean working-class education, not e.g. going to college/university.

        • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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          I didn’t realise how bad laptops had got until I had to repair one for my uncle a few years ago.

          I’d always known laptops to be pretty good. Panels underneath for access to RAM and HDD (the most common things to need replacing), and a removable battery.

          This thing was glued shut. I did manage to get it open and replace the drive with an SSD, but it was clearly designed to be thrown away once anything went wrong with it. Getting it back together again meant the trackpad didn’t work reliably any more, but what can you do?

          Anyway, I digress. I fear that real change means a drop in living standards for many. It’s unpalatable to the career politicians whose only real motivation to do anything is to get re-elected every 4-5 years, and maybe line their own pockets courtesy of corporate donors.

    • jerdle_lemmy@lemmy.world
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      Actions that work in the possible world in which it collapses soon are actively harmful in possible worlds in which it doesn’t. Acting as if a threat will happen only makes sense if the action isn’t significantly harmful in cases where it doesn’t, where significantly is based on the harm of not being prepared and the chance of it happening.

      If the Gulf Stream will collapse by 2025, the response isn’t to be more eco-friendly. In fact, it’s the opposite. Everyone in the north should prepare to burn a lot more fuel, and concern for global warming would definitely be reduced. Global warming is something you can only afford to give a shit about when temperatures haven’t just dropped by 3.5C and you haven’t just lost 78% of your arable land (UK figures, because that’s where I live).

      • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
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        Do you mean that people need to see how their life will get worse before they will be willing to act? That sounds a little accelerationist to me. But I’m not entirely sure of your argument. You seem to be saying that people would not be worried if they lost 4/5ths of their arable land, but I think I must be misunderstanding something.

        (I think it’s s tributary to the Gulf Stream that is at risk of collapsing, not the Gulf Stream itself, which, I’m told, is based on the earth’s rotation rather than climate.)

        • jerdle_lemmy@lemmy.world
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          You are. People would be very worried. It’s just that their worry would not be expressed in attempts to improve things in the long-term when there’s a short-term disaster.

          If the Gulf Stream will definitely collapse in 2025 (which is not what the study says), then that’s too soon to do anything about, so the priority is surviving it rather than preventing it. Fundamentally, things that help prevent disaster are not the same as things that help survive it.

          • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
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            I see, yes, that makes more sense: if conditions get that bad that quickly, it won’t be a question of preventing worse change, it’ll be figuring out how to survive day-to-day.

            • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
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              I wouldn’t dismiss an article just because a fact check website down rates it.

              In this instance, though, it’s not far off. “The famous scientists at the Newsweek lab got things wrong a few decades ago, so all scientists today must be wrong.”

            • Umbra@kbin.social
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              They are not far right, just right. And very credible. I’ll look for another source I guess.

              • masquenox@lemmy.ml
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                “Just right” is no more credible than “far right.” Right-wing politics is a pack of lies and absolutely nothing else.

                • Umbra@kbin.social
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                  Ring wing news sources actually value the truth, unlike establishment and left wing news sources.

              • rusticus1773@lemmy.ml
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                “And very credible.” Lol. These are opinion pieces you are linking to. Let us know when you have a scientific article (ie Science, PNAS, Nature) to support your climate denial.

              • Melpomene@kbin.social
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                Bias Rating: RIGHT
                Factual Reporting: MIXED
                Country: USA
                Press Freedom Rank: MOSTLY FREE
                Media Type: Magazine
                Traffic/Popularity: Medium Traffic
                MBFC Credibility Rating: MEDIUM CREDIBILITY

                Overall, we rate the New American Right Biased based on story selection that always favors the right and Mixed for factual reporting due to rejecting the consensus of science and poor sourcing techniques. (7/19/2016) Updated (D. Van Zandt 01/17/2023)

                https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-new-american/

          • Einar@lemm.eeOP
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            Not exactly a news source known for it’s unbiased and trustworthy reporting.

            Even if it were credible, the article is almost 10 years old.

            You need to do better than use a far-right organization’s outlet. Go to the true scientists, not reporters with a political agenda.

            Reputable sources such as NASA, the United Nations, and the National Geographic Society, which base their conclusions on scientific evidence and rigorous research are much more reliable.

            It is understandable to feel unhappy with the current reality. However, ignoring the situation and trying to find evidence that it is not real will not benefit anyone. In fact, it may even cause harm. As the saying goes, it is better to be safe than sorry.

            It is important to face the reality and take appropriate actions to improve the situation. How else will a difference ever be made?

            Edit: I named American websites (apart from the UN), because I assume by your source that you are American. This is a global issue, though. European reputable institutions:

          • A7thStone@lemmy.world
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            That article was the epitome of the old saying “figures don’t lie, but liars can figure”. They cherry picked studies and statistics to support the conclusion they wanted to reach, absolute garbage “science”.

      • Cybermass@lemmy.world
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        Your right, they said we had way longer before the climate would start collapsing, they should have warned us HARDER

          • rusticus1773@lemmy.ml
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            What is your honest opinion - do you think the climate is not warming due to increased CO2 that humans are releasing into the atmosphere?

            • Umbra@kbin.social
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              I think yes, but there’s no accurate model on how much exactly the greenhouse gasses are affecting the average temperatures.

  • Send_me_nude_girls@feddit.de
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    As long as we finally get colder weather and snow in Germany again, I’m all for it. No, not really because it’s horrible but I try to see the positive things.

  • Mangoholic@lemmy.ml
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    I can remember a time when elon musk was still saying smart things… like if there’s even a 1% chance of it destroying the planet. We should do everything to avoid it.

  • virr@lemmy.world
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    TL;DR: New statistical model suggests that the AMOC (including gulf stream) could collapse to the much slower pattern by 2025 to 2095. This is a century earlier than previous predictions and the researchers were concerned. There is some questions on the accuracy of the model used, and that needs more research.

    Personally I don’t think we should wait for further testing to vet the model before acting. Try to do better now.

    • jerdle_lemmy@lemmy.world
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      It’s kind of important whether it’s 2095 (prepare for it, set up nuclear, reduce carbon emissions) or 2025 (fuck global warming, we need fuel and we need it now, the more carbon emitted the better).

    • nexusband@lemmy.world
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      Not really - the AMOC collaps between 2025 and 2095 was already in a 2005 paper. Nothing really “new”, IMHO.

  • PrincessLeiasCat@lemmy.world
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    If anyone wants to read more about AMOC, here is a description from NASA along with the NASA illustration that was in the article:

    June 5, 2023

    BRIEF: As the ocean warms and land ice melts, ocean circulation — the movement of heat around the planet by currents — could be impacted. Research with NASA satellites and other data is currently underway to learn more.

    Edit: climate.nasa.gov is fantastic for this kind of stuff, btw. They have tons of data from their satellites you can download, visualizations, videos, charts, graphics, tutorials…just all sorts of things. It’s very cool.

  • spaysi@sh.itjust.works
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    Well that’s pretty scary… I mean, at least the scientists say that it’s more likely the current will just slow down rather than completely collapse? But then again, all the climate change models predicted a much more conservative timeline on when we would be experiencing the effects of climate change than what is actually happening in the real world now… so idk, scary shit man ☹️

    • slicedcheesegremlin@kbin.social
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      they also have admitted to only announcing the most optimistic results because nobody would believe them if they didn’t, and if people did it would be devastating

      • spaysi@sh.itjust.works
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        Ugh, and of course because of that people have been dragging their feet on making necessary changes to the point of doing basically nothing anyway… I feel like the risk of people saying it’s too extreme maybe would have been worth instilling a sense of panic in people over climate change? Feels panic worthy to me

        • LUHG@lemmy.world
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          We have become so politically correct that giving people upsetting thought may actually kill us all.

  • LoveSausage@lemmygrad.ml
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    Actually this is one of the climate issues I am not that worried about. Yea it can happen, yea there wil be problems but even in climate models with 0 sea currents , the winds will make up for most of it. It won’t be a km of ice covering Europe etc.

    More worried about extreme weather that happens with or without the amoc

    • Obinice@lemmy.world
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      Nobody is claiming that there will be a literal ice age here. What part of Europe are you from where people actually think that will happen?

      Even a small change in weather patterns can have disastrous consequences across many industries and aspects of society however, and must be taken extremely seriously. Will this be an apocalypse of biblical proportions? No. Will it plunge us into various types of suffering and despair? Yus.

      • LoveSausage@lemmygrad.ml
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        Sure, Lots of issues. But a big probl is that the nuances of science is often missed when reporting on this issues , and gives fuel to deniers and lobbying organisations.

        Regarding the golf stream the data is very inconclusive. Direct measurements have only been going on for about 15 years and at least 30 is needed to make any tendencies known.

        15 degree cooler in winters if you dismiss the wind taking the place for heat transfers. I do agree that if we do not know exactly we should consider the worst case scenario. My problem is that the media reporting is counter effective since it report in the way it does.