https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/88x77x/bad-news-for-humanity-a-critical-climate-system-could-collapse-sooner-than-we-thought

We’re on track towards a “cliff-like” tipping point where Atlantic Ocean currents abruptly shut down, according to a study published Friday in Science Advances. Once this tipping point is reached, it will have a massive impact on the global climate, including potentially plunging large parts of Europe into a deep freeze and significantly altering the Amazon rainforest’s ecosystem.  

The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) acts like an escalator, bringing warm, salty waters northward and upward to the top layers of the Atlantic Ocean, while forcing colder water south into deeper water. Through this process, AMOC redistributes heat around the planet to stabilize climates from Europe to the equator.