The AMOC is a complex tangle of currents that works like a giant global conveyor belt. It transports warm water from the tropics toward the North Atlantic, where the water cools, becomes saltier and sinks deep into the ocean, before spreading southwards. The likeliest point of collapse is somewhere between 2039 and 2070, Ditlevsen said. Warming oceans and melting ice threaten to desatbilize a crucial system of ocean currents in the Atlantic. “The key point of this study is that we don’t have much time at all to do this,” de Menocal said.

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Persons: ”, Peter de Menocal, Peter Ditlevsen, Ditlevsen, “, Drew Angerer, Menocal, It’s, haven’t, ” de Menocal, Stefan Rahmstorf Organizations: CNN, Oceanographic Institution, University of Copenhagen, Atlantic, University of Potsdam Locations: Europe, Greenland, Cove, Newfoundland, Canada, Germany