More than 40 scientists have written an open letter warning of a potential “tipping point” for the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) in the Arctic.
The letter to the Nordic Council of Ministers encourages countries in the region to prevent global heating from causing AMOC’s collapse, which could lead to sudden changes in weather patterns and damage to ecosystems.
“Science increasingly confirms that the Arctic region is a ‘ground zero’ for tipping point risks and climate regulation across the planet. In this region, the Greenland Ice Sheet, the Barents sea ice, the boreal permafrost systems, the subpolar gyre deep-water formation and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) are all vulnerable to major, interconnected nonlinear changes,” the scientists said in the letter. “The AMOC, the dominant mechanism of northward heat transport in the North Atlantic, determines life conditions for all people in the Arctic region and beyond and is increasingly at risk of passing a tipping point.”
AMOC is an ocean current systemthat brings …