An invisible workhorse of the Atlantic Ocean tirelessly shuffles cold and warm water back and forth between tropical and Arctic waters, dragging heat away from the equator. Scientists credit rich Atlantic fisheries and mild Mediterranean winters with the sheer power of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC. But, last week, scientists confirmed the circulation system is being jeopardized by climate-changing pollution. Changes appear to be occurring more quickly than had been anticipated, and they could accelerate in the decades ahead. The flow is presumably being throttled by an influx of freshwater pouring off a melting ice sheet — back to levels in recent decades that likely haven’t been seen in more than a millennium.
Arapaho glacier in Colorado, 1898
Arapaho glacier in Colorado, 2003
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