Do you know what the actual effects of global warming are? Climate change, pollution, and global warming are more than just buzz words for the environmentally conscious. They have actual consequences that are vast and varied.
According to Ivan Farkas’s article published in Nature Communications, human-inflected climate change has an effect on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) system. In fact, it is making it slow down. The AMOC is like a giant conveyor belt that circulates ocean temperatures across the Atlantic. It pushes water heated at the equator up to Europe and warms the climate there, then the water cools and becomes denser. This water then plunges down to the ocean floor just in time to be heated up again at the equator and sent right back up. The conveyor belt keeps on rolling – until it no longer does…
Melting ice caps and increased rainfall are messing up the salt balance in the Atlantic Ocean. Freshwater is mixing with the salt water and making it less dense, which prevents it from shooting down towards the equator and heating up. The conveyor belt becomes frail, and then heat is no longer distributed around the globe. Carbon Brief suggests that with enough global warming, the AMOC could reach a tipping point and become weak or even stop working. The slowing down of the AMOC could result in European temperatures plummeting despite global warming.
In addition to this, global food supply could be affected, sea levels could increase, and rainfall patterns could change, causing droughts in some places and floods in others. In a PDBY Instagram poll, 71% of readers shared they did not know what the AMOC is. Being aware of the consequences of climate change and global warming allows for people to make more informed decisions regarding their lifestyle and pollution contributions.
The slowing down of the AMOC is just one of the real-life consequences of global warming and climate change. It may feel like a distant concern, but the earth around us is changing. Your favourite hot sauce? It may not be so easily available on your next grocery store run because there is a chili shortage according to EarthDay. Extreme weather patterns are causing difficult struggles in agricultural spaces and crop scarcity. Warmer weather also means that there is a boost in rat reproduction. The rats will be running the city soon… Rising sea temperatures also mean that sharks are venturing into new spaces (someone play the Jaws soundtrack).
Everything seems to be looking quite gloomy now, does it not? Well, that is not just your mood after hearing about the climate crisis. Rising sea temperatures are reducing low-lying cloud coverage, which reflects sunlight according to EarthDay. This results in Earth’s brightness being slightly dimmed. Now I bet you are thinking that a nice glass of wine will calm your nerves after reading this article. Well, here is one last nail in the coffin: changing weather is affecting the quality of grapes and the taste of wine.
Climate change is not this distant, meaningless word we can ignore. There are real life consequences and real-world changes as a result of it. And at the risk of sounding incredibly cliché, there is only one Earth, and it is important that we take care of it.
Visual: Gabriella Le Roux
