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A 'cold blob' in the Atlantic could be a sign of AMOC shutdown

cnn.com

381–390 of 429 posts

Re: A 'cold blob' in the Atlantic could be a sign of AMOC shutdown

#381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If the current climate trends continue, vast areas of the Earth may not be suitable for habitation within half that time, and we still can't seem to convince some people this is real The areas to be rendered “uninhabitable” in our lifetimes are all poor. Hence the disconnect.

Miami is definitely not poor

> Miami is definitely not poor

Whether Miami is rendered uninhabitable is an economic choice. (And one that could realistically be made solely by Miami.)

That’s simply not true in e.g. South Asia, Eastern or sub-Saharan Africa. (It’s technically a global economic choice. We could safeguard their populations at great expense.)

Re: A 'cold blob' in the Atlantic could be a sign of AMOC shutdown

#382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mmm, ecofascism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecofascism

Hmm nah, I'm thinking beyond that, like a full wipe and reset back to primordial ooze stage. Although that's pretty unlikely as humans will be fully wiped out as a species before conditions get to the point of triggering a full reset, and cockroaches at least are notorious for surviving the most inhospitable conditions ever. Theoretically, a device could be built that triggers it though.

> Hmm nah, I'm thinking beyond that, like a full wipe and reset back to primordial ooze stage.

That's ecofascism, yes.

Re: A 'cold blob' in the Atlantic could be a sign of AMOC shutdown

#383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it's not really a rebuttal, is it? When choosing a path to take we need to be clear on both the climate benefits and the economic disbenefits (or vica versa).

Exactly the kind of thinking that's gotten us to this point. What happens when that which benefits the climate continually "disbenefits" the economy, or vv?

Then we should let the electorate make a fully informed decision about whether they want to definitely reduce their standard of living for some estimated/modelled future climate issue (none of which have come true to date), bearing in mind that it makes no sense for EG the UK to do it if China or Russia don't as we are just rounding errors on their polution.

Re: A 'cold blob' in the Atlantic could be a sign of AMOC shutdown

#384

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly the kind of thinking that's gotten us to this point. What happens when that which benefits the climate continually "disbenefits" the economy, or vv?

Then we should let the electorate make a fully informed decision about whether they want to definitely reduce their standard of living for some estimated/modelled future climate issue (none of which have come true to date), bearing in mind that it makes no sense for EG the UK to do it if China or Russia don't as we are just rounding errors on their polution.

> estimated/modelled future

Would you also like to take a highway stroll[0]?

> China or Russia

Why look toward them to make a first move? What do you think happens when everyone keeps looking at everyone else to make the first move? Pretty sure there was/is a rush to be first to accessible fossil fuel deposits, and first to build infrastructure exploiting those deposits. How about making that move first to fix things because it's the right thing to do, and set an example that others can then actually follow? Or is it better to just keep watching and exploiting and let it all burn and flood, because that's a "future concern"?

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48528356

Re: A 'cold blob' in the Atlantic could be a sign of AMOC shutdown

#385
post #57

Well its funny. I remember reading years ago that the big problems in Europe would start when the Greenland glaciers started melting, adding significant cold water to the Labrador Current, and pushing the AMOC to the south. Never mind the sea level rise, the temperature in Europe would drop significantly. Now, looking at the image in the article, there is a massive cold blob right there where the Labrador Current joi…

just an insufficiently researched article

Re: A 'cold blob' in the Atlantic could be a sign of AMOC shutdown

#386
post #87

I don't know if it's too late to stop the worst case scenarios of global warming yet or if there's still time, but it doesn't seem to be happening anyway. The world can't deal with something that requires global concentrated efforts. However, I do think we have time to prepare for the worst case scenarios, and individual countries and states can do that efficiently on their own. Improve evacuation routines in floodab…

We've already stopped the "Worst case scenarios" by rapidly replacing Carbon-intensive energy with other sources over the past decade: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/26/climate/emissions-worst-c... Still work to be done, and also plenty of reasons for optimism. Batteries, motors, and carbon free generation only get better.

> We've already stopped the "Worst case scenarios"

maybe the _very worst_ ones, but there are still plenty of devastating worst case scenarios that are highly plausible and even more so now that Trumpistan dgaf about global warming or reducing fossil fuel emissions

Re: A 'cold blob' in the Atlantic could be a sign of AMOC shutdown

#387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fossil fuels use continues to increase and shows no signs of slowing down: https://ourworldindata.org/fossil-fuels Instead of trying to push with a string (coming up with new non fossil energy sources) we need to ramp down fossils production using regulation, international agreements, emissions trading etc. Otherwise we'll just keep using both fossil and new energy sources.

That's a negative framing and while I'm not going to call it /wrong/, but world population is increasing so of course our energy usage is going to increase too. If you scroll a little further down on your linked page, you will encounter another[1] graph, with renewable fraction of primary energy production and its steadily falling everywhere but the gulf states. We're probably doing too little, too late, but my read…

> we're moving in the right direction

many countries are, but the US is now moving in the opposite direction and because of its size it has a very large global impact

Re: A 'cold blob' in the Atlantic could be a sign of AMOC shutdown

#388

If we take the down the signs then everything will be okay. https://www.cnn.com/2026/06/13/politics/judge-ruling-nationa... > At South Carolina’s Fort Sumter National Monument, a sign that included details on the looming impacts of climate change, including information on how “rising seas could inundate most of the fort’s walls and flood the historic parade ground” was removed in its entirety.

also we can close our eyes and stop monitoring it https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/03/climate/ocean-monitoring-...

every bit helps!

Re: A 'cold blob' in the Atlantic could be a sign of AMOC shutdown

#389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm nah, I'm thinking beyond that, like a full wipe and reset back to primordial ooze stage. Although that's pretty unlikely as humans will be fully wiped out as a species before conditions get to the point of triggering a full reset, and cockroaches at least are notorious for surviving the most inhospitable conditions ever. Theoretically, a device could be built that triggers it though.

> Hmm nah, I'm thinking beyond that, like a full wipe and reset back to primordial ooze stage. That's ecofascism, yes.

Nope. From my reading ecofascism involves racism and the promotion of a particular group for resources, not doing away with everything.

Re: A 'cold blob' in the Atlantic could be a sign of AMOC shutdown

#390
post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wealth distribution is an issue, but lots of "wealth" is due to stuff that is owned by some and used by many. Take a landlord as an example: he might have 100 houses and own 99% of the wealth in a village, but if the houses are inhabited, people still use them. If those people want to use a 300 sq meter houses rather than 50 sq meter studios, they do contribute as well to the climate issue. This holds for other field…

Your simplistic take is fundamentally wrong. It would take someone in the bottom 99% of the world's population more than 1,500 years to match the personal lifetime carbon footprint of a billionaire. People in the top 1% can be attributed with 25% of emissions when you take their investments into account also. But most importantly, they are the ones who actually "steer the boat". They are responsible for the utter lac…

In the event that it helps: telling people that they're wrong repeatedly is not a very effective way to get your point across.
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