cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/2047200

A vital ocean current system that helps regulate the Northern Hemisphere's climate could collapse anytime from 2025 and unleash climate chaos, a controversial new study warns.

The Atlantic Meridional Ocean Current (AMOC), which includes the Gulf Stream, governs the climate by bringing warm, tropical waters north and cold water south.

But researchers now say the AMOC may be veering toward total breakdown between 2025 and 2095, causing temperatures to plummet, ocean ecosystems to collapse and storms to proliferate around the world. However, some scientists have cautioned that the new research comes with some big caveats.

The AMOC can exist in two stable states: a stronger, faster one that we rely upon today, and another that is much slower and weaker. Previous estimates predicted that the current would probably switch to its weaker mode sometime in the next century.

Related: Gulf Stream could be veering toward irreversible collapse, a new analysis warns

But human-caused climate change may push the AMOC to a critical tipping point sooner rather than later, researchers predicted in a new study, published Tuesday (July 25) in the journal Nature Communications.

"The expected tipping point — given that we continue business as usual with greenhouse gas emissions — is much earlier than we expected," co-author Susanne Ditlevsen, a professor of statistics and stochastic models in biology at the University of Copenhagen, told Live Science.

"It was not a result where we said: 'Oh, yeah, here we have it'. We were actually bewildered."

It was already bad when the sea surface temperature was well over 90 degrees Fahrenheit last week, but...over 100?

https://nbc-2.com/weather/weather-blog/2023/07/25/buoy-in-florida-keys-measures-101-1-degree-water-temperature/ (this is the article linked above)

FYI that's hot tub hot, as this other article notes: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/weather/hot-tub-water-temperatures-florida-soar-100-degrees-stunning-experts-rcna96163

This might be record-breaking. In the worst sense possible.

(this is a repost of my own toot, with additional elaboration and minus hashtags)

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/528234

A major study in Southeast Queensland is testing how quickly biodegradable plastics break down in waterways, as researchers search for solutions to the world's growing plastics problem.

The project is underway at the $13 million Australian Research Council Training Centre for Bioplastics and Biocomposites at The University of Queensland, which has been officially opened by the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Research Council, Dr Richard Johnson.

"There is a lot of research on what happens to biodegradable plastic in soil, compost, on land, and in landfills, but we actually don't know what happens when these materials enter the marine environment."

Early results have found PHA plastics which are bioderived, degraded completely in water after 7 months but other bioplastics degraded by a little as one per cent in a year.

Chris Armstrong, professor of political theory at the University of Southampton in England, calls for a Blue New Deal.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/472671

An older article related to Tasmanian Kelp Forests. Has sound and video.

Earth Heritage is produced twice yearly to stimulate interest in geodiversity and a broad range of geological and landscape conservation issues within the UK and further afield. It is free in pdf format.

In this issue:

• Using drones to monitor geological sites • The Scottish Geology Trust's outreach initiatives • Geo trails in the Fens and the Peak District • New publications on river potholes in Wales, Hugh Miller and the Old Red Sandstone and Natural England's Geoconservation: Principles and Practice