Critical ocean circulation won’t entirely collapse because of climate crisis - but it’s still in trouble

Sign up to the Independent Climate email for the latest advice on saving the planet Get our free Climate email Get our free Climate email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, a massive system of ocean currents, helps regulate global weather patterns by transporting warm water north and cold water south. Even under extreme climate change, the Southern Ocean sustains a weakened but resilient Atlantic overturning circulation, a vital component of Earth's climate system, study finds and co-authors ) The main reason for this resilience is persistent upwelling in the Southern Ocean, driven by strong westerly winds, which compensates for AMOC weakening, the study says. “The study’s results should certainly not be interpreted as showing that AMOC is a resilient system, given it finds that the AMOC still reduces to weak strengths under human-caused global warming,” Dr René van Westen, postdoctoral researcher at Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, says. A recent study by the University of Hamburg’s climate research group found that an AMOC slowdown could accelerate global heating by reducing CO2 absorption in the ocean.