AMOC collapse could alter Europe's climate 10x faster than predicted, yet monitoring remains underfunded
By
Guardian staff reporter
Hot, fresh, and worth queueing round the block for.
Summary
The article warns that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) — a critical ocean current system regulating Europe's climate — could collapse 10 times faster than previously expected. It draws a stark metaphor comparing society's underfunding of AMOC monitoring to ignoring an incoming asteroid. While Europe spends €1 billion on asteroid monitoring (a near-zero risk), it fails to adequately fund monitoring of this imminent and high-impact climate threat, which could devastate European agriculture, infrastructure, and ecosystems.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledIn Europe, we spend €1bn to monitor space for asteroids, even if the actual risk of a civilisation-ending asteroid strike is close to zero.
But governments don't commit to spend a fraction of that amount to adequately monitor a threat that is more imminent, more likely, and located
Imagine we detect a large asteroid heading straight for Earth. We are able to intervene and prevent disaster, but instead we cut the funding needed to track it.
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