Forty-four of the world’s leading climate scientists have called on Nordic policymakers to address the potentially imminent and “devastating” collapse of key Atlantic Ocean currents.

In an open letter published online Monday (Oct. 21), University of Pennsylvania climatologist Michael Mann and other eminent scientists say the risks of weakening ocean circulation in the Atlantic have been greatly underestimated and warrant urgent action.

The currents in question are those forming the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a giant ocean conveyor belt that includes the Gulf Stream and transports vital heat to the Northern Hemisphere. Research shows the AMOC is slowing down and could soon reach a tipping point due to global warming, throwing Earth’s climate into chaos.

“Such an ocean circulation change would have devastating and irreversible impacts especially for Nordic countries, but also for other parts of the world,” the scientists wrote in the letter. The Nordic countries include Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Finland and Sweden.

An AMOC collapse would lead to major cooling and extreme weather in Nordic countries, according to the letter. This would enlarge and deepen a strange “cold blob” that has already developed over the eastern North Atlantic due to the slowdown of heat-carrying currents. Collapsing ocean currents are also likely to precipitate climate impacts across the Northern Hemisphere, threatening agriculture in Northwestern Europe , according to the letter.

A map of the ocean currents in the Atlantic. (Image credit: Peter Hermes Furian via Shutterstock)

Other regions would feel the effects, too, the scientists said. Should the AMOC grind to a halt, it would trigger a southward shift in tropical monsoon systems — with catastrophic consequences for agriculture and ecosystems. Halted ocean currents could also further heighten sea levels along the American Atlantic coast and send marine ecosystems and fisheries into a state of “upheaval.”

Without urgent climate action, the AMOC could collapse in the next few decades , although there is huge uncertainty in predicting the timescales, according to the letter. The latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that “there is medium confidence that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation will not collapse abruptly before 2100,” but the scientists say this is an underestimate.

The IPCC estimate is not only imprecise but also worrisome, according to the letter.

“The purpose of this letter is to draw attention to the fact that only ‘medium confidence’ in the AMOC not collapsing is not reassuring, and clearly leaves open the possibility of an AMOC collapse during this century,” the scientists wrote. “Even with a medium likelihood of occurrence, given that the outcome would be catastrophic and impacting the entire world for centuries to come, we believe more needs to be done to minimize this risk.”

The scientists addressed the letter to the Nordic Council of Ministers, an intergovernmental forum tasked with promoting cooperation among the Nordic countries. They urged policymakers to seriously consider the risks posed by an AMOC collapse and to increase pressure on international partners to stay close to the targets of the 2015 Paris Agreement, which aims to keep average global temperature rise to 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius) above preindustrial levels.

The post Key Atlantic current could collapse soon, ‘impacting the entire world for centuries to come,’ leading climate scientists warn appeared first on Good News!.

Collap$e Cast and Writer/Director from the New York New Works Festival starting August 17th in New York Visits Good News on our interview story.
From camera Left to Right:
Zoe Farmingdale: Actor playing Amanda (the femme fatale)
Michael Maher: Writer/Composer/Producer
Paul Sladkus Host
David Hersh: Director
Lydia Folckomer: Actor playing Katie (the daughter)
Rachel Drayke: Actor playing Denise (the rival)

Our second video is the actual performance at the NYNW festival. Good News produced the video. It is a great show. Paul

Collap$e
by Michael Maher
at the New York New Works Festival www.nynwtheatrefestival.com
Tuesday, August 18 at 7:00pm

Festival runs Monday, August 17-September 16.

Another show in the Festival by the Director of Collap$e David Hirsch is:
Going Up (The Elevator Musical) which is a musical comedy. It is about five strangers stuck in an elevator and how they have to overcome their differences and work together in order to get through their disaster. The show climaxes with one of the passengers having to give birth in the elevator aided by a bicycle courier from Syria who has delivered babies before – except they were goats. The other passengers on the elevator are a heavy-set illustrator who tries diffuse arguments, an angsty teenager who is sneaking into her mother’s office to have sex with her boyfriend, and a woman who is trying to overcome her fear of elevators. The show is a lot of fun and the theme is something that would work extremely well with your programming. If you’d like to do an interview with us and get maybe a song or two, I’d be happy to work something out with you. Emmanuelle is in this show as well as the pregnant woman who gives birth. This show goes up on Tuesday 25.

The post Collap$e Cast and Writer/Director from the New York New Works Festival appeared first on Good News!.

Collap$e Cast and Writer/Director from the New York New Works Festival starting August 17th in New York Visits Good News on our interview story.
From camera Left to Right:
Zoe Farmingdale: Actor playing Amanda (the femme fatale)
Michael Maher: Writer/Composer/Producer
Paul Sladkus Host
David Hersh: Director
Lydia Folckomer: Actor playing Katie (the daughter)
Rachel Drayke: Actor playing Denise (the rival)

Our second video is the actual performance at the NYNW festival. Good News produced the video. It is a great show. Paul

Collap$e
by Michael Maher
at the New York New Works Festival www.nynwtheatrefestival.com
Tuesday, August 18 at 7:00pm

Festival runs Monday, August 17-September 16.

Another show in the Festival by the Director of Collap$e David Hirsch is:
Going Up (The Elevator Musical) which is a musical comedy. It is about five strangers stuck in an elevator and how they have to overcome their differences and work together in order to get through their disaster. The show climaxes with one of the passengers having to give birth in the elevator aided by a bicycle courier from Syria who has delivered babies before – except they were goats. The other passengers on the elevator are a heavy-set illustrator who tries diffuse arguments, an angsty teenager who is sneaking into her mother’s office to have sex with her boyfriend, and a woman who is trying to overcome her fear of elevators. The show is a lot of fun and the theme is something that would work extremely well with your programming. If you’d like to do an interview with us and get maybe a song or two, I’d be happy to work something out with you. Emmanuelle is in this show as well as the pregnant woman who gives birth. This show goes up on Tuesday 25.

The post Collap$e Cast and Writer/Director from the New York New Works Festival appeared first on Good News!.