The dangers of a collapse of the main Atlantic Ocean circulation, known as Amoc, have been “greatly underestimated” and would have devastating and irreversible impacts, according to an open letter released at the weekend by 44 experts from 15 countries. One of the signatories, Stefan Rahmstorf, an oceanographer and climatologist who heads the Earth system analysis department at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, explains here why he has recently upgraded his risk assessment of an Amoc breakdown as a result of global heating – and what that means for Britain, Europe and the wider world.
At this point climate scientists are like the boy who cried wolf except there’s a huge fucking wolf that everyone can see but nobody wants to admit to in case they are asked to pay to find a solution.
We found the solutions a long time ago - it’s just that nobody wanted to implement them.
Yes.
Unfortunately, those solutions aren’t acceptable because we have to think about the shareholders and the politicians who like the lobbying money.
I’ve been telling this to people for two decades: climate denialism exists to provide a “get out of liability free” card for the folks who’d otherwise be stuck paying climate reparations