According to the models, if the Atlantic Ocean currents collapsed, temperatures in Bergen, Norway, would drop dramatically.
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Danish researchers have been able to show for the first time that the collapse of Atlantic ocean currents is due to climate change It is more than just a theoretical construct. They even go so far as to suggest that ocean circulation – of which the Gulf Stream is a part – is pushing them towards this tipping point, leading to catastrophic cooling in Europe. But they don't know when that turning point will be reached. In decades, in centuries, or even later. Who knows.
Are we interested in studies that contain such uncertainties? Yes. These findings remind us that the consequences of climate change are ultimately unpredictable. And we have already made the mistake of underestimating science. And it seems we still do.
The UNFCCC was reached at the 1992 environmental summit because science warned of impending climate change. However, even thirty years after the last climate conference in Dubai, signatories to the Paris Climate Agreement have not been able to formulate at least a phase-out of fossil fuels.
Even in Switzerland's national climate policy, there is still no clear will to protect the climate. It appears that the increasingly scarce time factor is still valued by politicians and society, in contrast to today's reliable climate data.
Rather, the issue of climate change seems to have been pushed to the background in these uncertain times, currently marked by wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
As the Swiss writer C. F. Ramose said in his novel “Falling into the Sun,” first published in 1922: “Our world is very small. Our world extends as far as our eyes can see.” At that time, the world did not yet know the danger of global warming. But its story was also about a global catastrophe predicted by science that no one took seriously at first because it was not visible in everyday life .
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– We have already made the mistake of underestimating climate scientists
New insights into ocean circulation should not only engage science, but remind us of the urgent need for action.