Scientists Flag Ice Age Risk While UN Pushes ‘Boiling Planet’ Rhetoric

wokespy.com

A new study by climate researchers from the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of California, San Diego, warns that changes in a major Atlantic current could potentially trigger conditions associated with a new ice age.

The findings were published in Communications Earth & Environment and have drawn wide attention due to their contrast with long-standing claims about accelerating global temperature increases.

The research focuses on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, a system of ocean currents that moves warm water from the tropics toward the Northern Hemisphere.

The AMOC includes the Gulf Stream, which flows from the Gulf of Mexico up the U.S. East Coast and across the Atlantic to Europe.

Scientists describe the current as a “conveyor belt of the ocean,” essential to maintaining milder climates in Europe, the United Kingdom, and parts of the United States.

The New York Post summarized the study’s focus, noting that the researchers examined how warming temperatures have affected the Greenland Ice Sheet.

According to the report, meltwater runoff is entering the North Atlantic and contributing to stagnation in the current that helps regulate marine temperatures.

The study links these changes to a pattern described as a “distinctive temperature fingerprint” found between roughly 3,280 and 6,560 feet below the ocean’s surface.

“Here we identify a distinctive temperature fingerprint in the equatorial Atlantic that signals the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation change,” the authors wrote.

“The robust physical mechanism and reliable detection make [this fingerprint] a valuable metric for AMOC monitoring in a warming climate.”

According to the Daily Mail’s coverage, the fingerprint suggests the current has been weakening for decades.

The study states this decline could continue and possibly lead to a complete collapse before the end of the century.

The Mail also reported that Iceland has formally identified AMOC’s potential failure as an existential threat.


Iceland’s climate minister, Johann Pall Johannsson, said: “It is a direct threat to our national resilience and security.”

If the AMOC were to collapse, researchers say widespread cooling could follow across northern Europe.

Some scientists have projected that parts of the United Kingdom could experience temperatures as low as -30°C under such conditions.

The study arrives shortly after Bill Gates publicly downplayed the broader impact of temperature fluctuations, urging policymakers to prioritize what he viewed as more immediate risks to humanity. The publication also comes as claims of accelerating global temperature increases continue to dominate international discussions.

In 2023, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivered some of his starkest warnings during remarks from U.N. headquarters in New York.

“The era of global warming has ended, the era of global boiling has arrived,” he said during a streamed address.

He described scenes of “children swept away by monsoon rains, families running from the flames, workers collapsing in scorching heat.”

Guterres has repeatedly issued similar warnings throughout his tenure.

At the COP27 climate summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, he said, “We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator.”

He also asked, “How will we answer when baby 8 billion is old enough to ask: What did you do for our world and for our planet when you had the chance?”

Earlier, in 2019, he said climate-related damage was striking “on a weekly basis” and urged immediate global action.

His comments at the time aligned with demonstrations by climate activists calling for stronger international intervention.

While declarations about rising temperatures have dominated much of the climate discourse, predictions of a potential new ice age have been rare.

The new study’s findings have drawn significant attention because they suggest that the same warming trends widely cited by international organizations may also be contributing to dramatic regional cooling if AMOC continues to weaken.