Collapse of AMOC may release 640 billion of tonnes of carbon
Posted by wanton_wonton_@reddit | collapse | View on Reddit | 79 comments
Posted by wanton_wonton_@reddit | collapse | View on Reddit | 79 comments
snackerooryan@reddit
I have a feeling that things like this don’t concern people in power at all, and we are speed running consumption and destruction
Glacecakes@reddit
Of course not. They have been building bunkers to prepare
ManWhoTalksToHisHand@reddit
With what we're going to experience, I call those expensive coffins.
ThatEvanFowler@reddit
We should really stop parroting their own language about these things. Cal them what they are: tombs. They are building tombs for their corpses to rot in. I find it profoundly hilarious that these people imagine that they won't become suicidally depressed after replacing their ultra-pampered, jet-setting from one exotic paradise to the next, consuming only the finest of delicacies, with a concrete hole in the ground, no matter how luxurious it may appear before they are actually trapped inside of it forever. They're either going to kill themselves or be killed by the staff that they so hilariously imagine will respect some kind of imaginary social hierarchy once the vault door locks. Either way, it's their tomb. We should basically never stop reminding them of this.
Glacecakes@reddit
Well sure, but they’ll never face justice. They’ll still die safe and comfortable and absolved of sin.
ThatEvanFowler@reddit
That's probably a given, at this point. I just want to put some cracks in their confidence about their ridiculous backup plan. Maybe if we relentlessly remind them of their dead-in-a-tomb future, they'll be less likely to accelerate it into existence as quickly and thoughtlessly as possible.
skekze@reddit
What we need to do is trick billionaires into retreating to their bolt holes & then weld them inside.
MaddogBC@reddit
Don't forget the vents.
Mahat@reddit
no, we leave the air intake open as a latrine
E_G_Never@reddit
Leslie Fish had a song about that Digwell carol
GiftToTheUniverse@reddit
They want to be Negan.
GiftToTheUniverse@reddit
I wouldn't be so sure that the tombs will be intolerable, though.
As it stands, many of us spend most of our time indoors. It's only "going from place to place" that we're outside at all, for some of us.
I feel like I've seen images of some of the bunkers where the interior was palatial and spacious. When you have the kind of money they do you can make it extremely adequate.
AlwaysPissedOff59@reddit
Where will their doctors be? Their dentists? Assuming a mix of men and women, there will be sex which, because there will eventually be no birth control, will lead to babies. Who will deliver those babies? Who will keep the mother from dying from complications? While it's likely tomb-dwellers will not be exposed to any viruses or bacteria from the outside, cancers will happen. Appendicitis will happen. Fungal infections will happen. Without doctors, who will keep the patients alive?
These pathological excuses for humans will find out that they will still die from climate change, but in a pre-dug grave than on the surface of the planet.
A palatial prison cell is still a prison cell.
TheOtherHobbes@reddit
I'm sure these places have mini-hospitals. If you're a billionaire an MRI machine is a sandwich-level purchase.
What will kill them are the consumables. Spare parts. An MRI needs liquid helium. Drugs have a limited shelf life.
You could just about imagine having a drug factory - a chem lab able to make common medications. (And other drugs, if you want them.) But again, raw materials are a problem. You need stocks of chemical solvents and other disposables.
Same with farming equipment. You got tractors. Well done. What about fertiliser? Spare parts for the various machines?
You want to DIY? You need the right kinds of steel, plastics, ceramics, and the right kind of fabrication tools.
And so on. There's only a limited amount you can buy, some of it will last a limited time, and beyond that you start running out of the things you need.
This is not a money problem. You literally have to replace the global supply chains for everything you're planning to use on your bunker island.
If you don't you may get ten years, but after that the problems start. And they pile up fast.
ThatEvanFowler@reddit
It doesn’t matter. Pablo Escobar got to design his own prison and he basically built a palace and filled it with every conceivable amenity, including drugs. And he could walk the property and take in nature. And he still went stir crazy and broke out a bunch of times. These people don’t stay inside all the time. They basically hop across the earth from one luxury resort or experience to the next. It’s completely irrelevant how nice the accommodations first appear. They’ll never get to leave. Ever. Not even a single breath of fresh air or a walk outside to clear their heads. Trust me, it’ll become a prison. Very, very quickly. It would for anyone, but none moreso than the 1%.
errie_tholluxe@reddit
And AI to power the robots they have made security over house slaves
playalovesong@reddit
They did that a little too late. From the ways are looking that is… robots flopping around, how do you fire those?
ssjjss@reddit
They would be concerned if they understood it, but they are paid not to.
zippopwnage@reddit
They're idiots but they know they will die way before anything major will actually happen.
Poor people will start to die first, they will still sip wine from their luxury yachts without worrying about anything.
I said it and will always say it. People are actually in power, but we fight eachothers instead of fighting them and they laugh at us.
Fucking USA has a pedophile as president. And you want someone like that to worry about global warming? Hah.
SlyestTrash@reddit
Reminded me of a line from Gangs of New York "You can always hire one half of the poor to kill the other half"
Z3r0sama2017@reddit
Yep. It's like debt. Load her up and leave future generations with thay bucket of shit, lets keep the party going!
ThatOneGuy444@reddit
Are yachts generally flammable? Just a hypothetical question of course.
Freud-Network@reddit
They understand. They built themselves massive bunkers. They're investing in control mechanisms for required staff. They think they can wait it out Fallout style.
datadrone@reddit
Most of our leaders are brainwashed into thinking a savior will make it all better
Kaining@reddit
Most of our leader are the worst kind of religious fanatic zealot and their religion is capitalism.
Makes no mistake, it's a faith based on a pseudo science called economy. You can't call something that's based on violating the first law of thermodynamic a science and not be called anything but religious fanatics. Even the most fancy math that "somehow make sence if you put away stuff like the basic laws on which our universe works" do not make it into a science.
toodarkparkranger@reddit
A computer savior that we have to burn the world down to build first, before it can solve the problem of us having burnt the world down. Makes ya think.
wasraelx@reddit
Their response to this is to keep racking up the numbers and build bunkers and space ships. They are concerned too - they just don’t think it will apply to them.
Far_Recommendation82@reddit
😢
UrSven@reddit
It's not just a feeling.
daviddjg0033@reddit
the models from 35 let alone 25 years ago said these faster than expected were 2050, 2060, 2075 and I even say 2100. the aerosols hid what 1C? we are six ways to Sunday. are you going to preach degrowth? like what do you expect leaders to do? I expect a strong military despite greenwashing china is the largest coal producer, coal consumer and has more petroleum refining capacity than the US. How else do you get billions of sl@v3 hours to do things for you?
The future generations will curse our addiction to electrons using a barrel of oil to get out two to making pharmaceuticals and chemicals under a 4C terminal then later 20C above the last interglacial and the fables of the Muscle Cars of the 1970s.
Cronenberg-Morty@reddit
What?
daviddjg0033@reddit
what part? our progeny wondering why we burned oil when they need it for drugs but so little is left it takes 2 barrels of energy to get out three?
deleted_by_reddit@reddit
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BadgerKomodo@reddit
They’re actively encouraging this shit.
i-hear-banjos@reddit
It doesn’t concern a wide swath of our general population, either.
Living-Excuse1370@reddit
Money is the only thing they're concerned about. I'm seeing less and less care for the environment everywhere. Why don't we give a fuck about the one thing that really matters? They just seem happy to catapult us in to an accelerated climate crisis. All faster than expected.
snackerooryan@reddit
When you see Trump opening logging of protected forests and opening fishing of protected waters, you realize our leaders would rather sell off every last bit of natural resource than try to preserve anything for the next generations
Lazerus42@reddit
I'm afraid they do understand...
for their life to continue at such degree, 75% of the populace needs to die.
Just like Europe after the plague (and the Huns)... they have the compounds and better chances to survive the destruction, and still have lavish lifestyle. It's their own betting game... they're betting the super rich have a high chance of surviving what they see as an inevitable. The world could fix it, but the super rich wouldn't be super rich anymore, and they don't want that thought as a thought to their own ego.
Bavarian_Raven@reddit
They want it to happen so Jesus returns. All that shit. Sadly.
Tattooed_Beauty15@reddit
https://www.cnn.com/2026/04/16/climate/atlantic-ocean-circulation-collapse-update
An article similar to the one posted here regarding AMOC collapse.
Expensive-Aerie-2479@reddit
The food security angle for the Horn of Africa is brutal. Somalia already collects only 3% of GDP in domestic tax revenue — essentially no fiscal buffer when climate shocks hit. No tax base means no disaster response capacity, total dependence on international aid that may not materialise.
The countries least responsible for emissions are the ones with the least capacity to adapt. AMOC disruption would hit the Sahel and East Africa hard and there's functionally no government infrastructure to absorb it.
HateHumansLoveDogs@reddit
I see it differently. The people that are going to die first are the people that live in technologically advanced societies. The people that still exist in remote tribes will actually prob be alright. They have the means to survive they have been doing without for millennia. We cant picture surviving like that because we are weak comparatively, we dont have a clue how to survive without anything. But there are plenty of people that have done just that for centuries
TerayonIII@reddit
They are also going to struggle, it might take a bit longer, but this is a global ecosystem change. The ecosystem that they rely on and are supported by is going to change radically and quickly. This would be the equivalent of throwing an Inuit village into Spain and telling them to survive without any other information. Can they do it? Absolutely, would it be incredibly difficult? Definitely.
HolyMoleyGuacamoly@reddit
oh……..
TheRationalPsychotic@reddit
According to the scientist that proved that most dinosaures went extinct because of a space rock, extinction expert Peter Ward, when the ocean currents shut down, the ocean becomes stagnant/anoxic (no oxygen), the ocean dies and bacteria produce the deadly H2S can. (Terrible sentence, sorry).
According to Peter Ward, most mass extinctions were caused by H2S gas emitted from a stagnant ocean. He wrote a book about it: Under A Green Sky.
For some reason, this angle is always missing from AMOC reporting.
🧡✌️
HateHumansLoveDogs@reddit
What i find ironic is it was the great ocean oxygenation event that allowed life to thrive, and we are going to have a great ocean de oxygenation event that will kill off life...talk about full circle
Curious-Row2410@reddit
The K-Pg impactor hypothesis should also be credited to the Alvarez family, in addition to Ward's contributions.
Long-Debt6637@reddit
So, I know I am not suppose to give up, but.... Gestures broadly.
alwaysnormalincafes@reddit
If it makes you feel any better, everything dies eventually anyway 🤷🏼♀️ best to enjoy what we can
HateHumansLoveDogs@reddit
This is true only the young never think about mortality, but you hit a point in your life where you realize omg im going to die, everyone is going to die! Yes thats how life is. Dying is a normal part of life. So get out there and enjoy life , its later than you think.
BadgerKomodo@reddit
Try and have as much fun as you can. That’s what I do.
AlienFromDC@reddit
Enjoy your time that remains i guess
dinnerdogzoop@reddit
This is good advice no matter what's going on
BeardedGlass@reddit
True, because otherwise what else are we supposed to do lol
TheUpbeatCrow@reddit
This is not helping my suicidal ideation.
refusemouth@reddit
On the bright side, you don't have to kill yourself if something else will do it for you. 🌈
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thenikolaka@reddit
How realistic is a return to the Dark Ages?
ishitar@reddit
So, we go back to the Dark Ages, we lose the ability to mitigate the pollution we've released so far, meaning the pollution burden increases in all organisms until we drop below biological process (metabolic) feasibility levels. Dark Ages, then Extinction.
TheOtherHobbes@reddit
A century from now? Either aliens appear and fix our problems, or we (and/or AI) invent real magic, or it's going to be worse than the Dark Ages, because the most inhabited areas will become deserts, lashed by storms, floods, and droughts.
One of those is more likely than the other two.
JamesRawles@reddit
They saw us set off nuclear bombs and said we're on our own.
wanton_wonton_@reddit (OP)
100%. We live on a finite planet and our one-off sugar hit of fossil carbon is expiring rapidly.
Raclettegring@reddit
I blame a system that thinks it can grow without boundaries and infinitely.
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Ricelord12@reddit
clathrate gun......
Hilda-Ashe@reddit
But I was told that AMOC collapse would freeze Europe and stop the methane from escaping the Siberian permafrost!
Does this planet not have a circuit breaker to stop its temperature from rising to extinction level?
refusemouth@reddit
We could try nuking a volcano.
UniqueEmotion2144@reddit
That's not so bad, right?
Right??
slimeyellow@reddit
We’re gonna need so many more data centers to solve this
FlowerDance2557@reddit
great news for team heat
Empty-Equipment9273@reddit
Does this have to do anything with methane hydrates in the oceans or is this a separate release?
MoonlitInstrumental@reddit
its the carbon that the ocean is always pulling out of the air naturally. when the AMOC collapses, all of that stored carbon will come to the surface as the southern ocean experiences upwelling of the deep ocean water. less carbon is able to be pulled out of the atmosphere in the atlantic because its not circulating
Empty-Equipment9273@reddit
Could it be much more than 640 billion tons released?
Considering the ocean takes up around 90 percent of our emitted heat and cumulative emissions are around 2.5 trillion tons give or take a hundred billion and going up around 50-60 billion tons a year
MoonlitInstrumental@reddit
i guess the way that i internalized it is that there will be a new equilibrium once the "pump" gets turned down and that number is the difference that they came up with
StatementBot@reddit
The following submission statement was provided by /u/wanton_wonton_:
Previous research has shown that AMOC shutdown could cause colder winters in Europe, disrupt monsoons in Africa and Asia, and increase global temperatures. But new computer modelling has shown it would also emit as much as 640 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide near Antarctica, heating the planet by an additional 0.2°C.
“AMOC collapse could trigger (in the) Southern Ocean big mixing and release the carbon stored in the deep water,” says Da Nian at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, who led the study. “It’s a quite new result.”
“The key message is that a very bad occurrence… could have even worse implications than we previously thought,” says co-author Johan Rockström, also at the Potsdam Institute. “We have to be very careful, because when one thing goes wrong, it can have these domino effects.”
Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1smkrsl/collapse_of_amoc_may_release_640_billion_of/ogewiav/
wanton_wonton_@reddit (OP)
Previous research has shown that AMOC shutdown could cause colder winters in Europe, disrupt monsoons in Africa and Asia, and increase global temperatures. But new computer modelling has shown it would also emit as much as 640 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide near Antarctica, heating the planet by an additional 0.2°C.
“AMOC collapse could trigger (in the) Southern Ocean big mixing and release the carbon stored in the deep water,” says Da Nian at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, who led the study. “It’s a quite new result.”
“The key message is that a very bad occurrence… could have even worse implications than we previously thought,” says co-author Johan Rockström, also at the Potsdam Institute. “We have to be very careful, because when one thing goes wrong, it can have these domino effects.”