The Atlantic’s vital currents could collapse

https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/12/14/1041321/climate-change-ocean-atlantic-circulation/

by mmettler • 5 years ago

33 3 5 years ago

I’m nearly always dumbfounded at how articles like these - those conveying reliable and scientifically informed information that humanity is in for a catastrophe - barely make it to the top of HN, and when they do, they have much less engagement. This is in comparison to significantly more trivial matters in the world today: one only needs to have a look at the current ranking on HN after reading this article to see our misplaced priorities. Don’t Look Up was all too prescient it seems.

potsandpans• 5 years ago

To be fair, these things are so complex and coming at us nearly non-stop that it's hard to actually process them. If only it were as simple as a giant meteor hurling towards us. Instead we get well intentioned scientific journalism that outlines extremely intricate processes with little actionable information.

My hypothesis is that there's such an overwhelming noise to signal ratio that most of us can't meaningfully process it. Just this week, I've seen this article, grave news of the accelerated melt of the Thwaites glacier, a continued and alarming decline of insect biomass across the globe, more harrowing revelations about the presence of microplastics in every ecological niche...

Frankly, it's mentally exhausting. I have young relatives that I worry about, with apparently no meaningful action that I could take.

I'm curious if you have ideas for what we could possibly do. The status quo seems so unshakable, I fear that all of these "doomer" scenarios are so complex that we'll never meaningfully be able to respond to them.

onecommentman• 5 years ago

“Most scientists say a collapse of the currents is a remote possibility this century…” — quote from the article. That’s one point to note.

Additionally, the thesis “Atlantic vital currents could collapse” has been formally true for every decade since…there was an Atlantic current to speculate about. The models aren’t anywhere near validated and verified enough to responsibly say “Atlantic currents more likely to collapse because of X, for these values of ‘collapse’.” We are also one within-historical-record volcanic event away from a micro-Ice-Age as well. I’m not upgrading my home heating unit…

There is an ongoing need to continue to study and understand our home/Earth, which is the actionable upshot of all this, and that is already a generally held global consensus, so no need to comment. I’m going to get some cookies, do you want one?

The Atlantic’s vital currents could collapse

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