Europe’s Warming Ocean Current ‘Unlikely’ to Suddenly Collapse

A new study disputes a long-held fear that climate change will lead to a quick, total collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), the ocean current that brings warmth to northwestern Europe.

Scientists from the UK’s Met Office and University of Exeter examined 34 models showing future planetary warming, with emissions growing as much as fourfold, and said the AMOC did not completely collapse under any of them.

The research, published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, found that even if the melting of the Greenland ice sheet adds high amounts of freshwater to the North Atlantic, it will only ...