The AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation) is a current in the Atlantic that transports heat from the tropics up to the UK and Western Europe. The amount of heat energy being moved is frankly unimaginable – in a Channel 4 article on this topic they equated it to more then a million power stations worth of energy. This is why despite being on the same latitude as Canada, we don’t get those really cold Canadian style winters.

Based on their measurements, scientists are getting quite concerned that due to the disruption of the climate, this current is slowing and may slow considerably more or even stop in the coming decades – current information suggests circulation may have slowed by 15% already since the 1950s, and even a slight slowdown in the AMOC can cool Europe, change precipitation patterns in parts of Europe, South America, and Africa, affect the timing of the Indian monsoon, and lead the tropical rain belt to shift southward, resulting in droughts over the African Sahel.

If the AMOC were to slow, or even collapse the effects would be profound. The UKs winter temperatures would likely drop to those experienced in Canada in the absence of the AMOC warming our seas and air, and all that heat that would have come to us gets left in the tropics exacerbating their climate based issues. For anyone thinking that this is a good thing as it counteracts our local warming, this sort of change would play havoc with local growing seasons, food production etc. and as noted in an earlier article on here, 40% of our food comes from overseas – areas potentially  cooking because the heat is not being moved north.

There is currently an 8 day expedition out from the Canary Islands to gather more data to try to get better clarity on the speed of the change. Alex Thompson of Channel 4 news is on the boat doing the research and here he invites that you follow him over the next week or so as he follows the scientists.