AIBU to feel frightened about the risk of AMOC collapse?

I hope you're able to breathe OK through all that sand.

I'll add it to the list.

It reminds of when we learnt about Yellowstone in year 7 and I was terrified for weeks afterwards.

We've had posts on our local community noticeboard Facebook page about a screening of the People's Emergency Briefing. The number of people outright saying that climate change is a hoax / it isn't real / follow the money is absolutely shocking.

I don’t have the headspace for worrying about something that may or may not happen in 25 years time! I’m just trying to get to 5pm tonight so I can go home!
Worrying about tomorrow (25 years hence) only takes away today’s joy!!!

Humans are a parasite on the earth and we’re eating up and destroying our host (the planet). It’s fundamentally what we are as a species. We can reduce the impact we have on the earth and extend our time here, but we can’t fundamentally change what we have become as a species.

Just because people aren’t panicking, doesn’t mean they don’t understand or know what’s going on. Some of us have accepted our fate a long time ago.

I’m frightened but more frightened for my adult daughter. She’s a science teacher and well educated on the fact that environmentally, we have gone past the point of no return. I hope she factors that in when deciding whether or not to have children. If I was her now, looking at what’s coming in terms of climate/environment change and AI impacts in terms of economy/jobs/living standards - I would absolutely not have children now

I think we would be like Jennifer Lawrence in don’t look up. We’d all sit round a table with those we love hold hands and go together.

It's too big and too scary and too much out of my control for me to worry about. Probably any future grandchildren or great grandchildren I am lucky to have will live really difficult lives, but also probably my kids will grow up to experience the same human desires I did and will want and hope for children. It's baked in that at some point the period of (relative) calm and peace that I have lived through will end, if not for me than for my descendants. But because I can't change that all I can do is carry on living the best life I can.

I think that's human nature

And what exactly are we to do with this information? Add it to the list. I’ve moved on from climate change to worrying about AI so no jobs for my young adults and societal collapse due to no one having a job.

I’ve given up fretting. You’ll drive yourself mad. I work with the terminally ill and any of us could go at any time. Just enjoy and treasure what you have. Also there have been worse times.

in the year 540 or around then there were Viking invasions / a volcano that blocked out the sun and destroyed the crops so many died of starvation then the Black Death killed ONE THIRD of the population.

During lockdown, I read a book called State of Fear which was written by a journalist and broke down factually how governments are very invested in behavioural psychology in times of crisis. It was pandemic focused, but lead to about 7 threads that branched off into all sorts of "conspiracy theories" until the threads were pulled because it was suggested we were inciting riots.

I mention this only to illustrate that while awareness of all sorts of issues can be prudent, one is best served by remembering that what we are served via the internet / media is partly agenda driven, partly for monetisation, and partly "just because we can".

I remember on the 70s as a child hearing about impending Ice Age. Now we seem to be cycling back to that after years of global warming talk. The planet goes through cycles, and I'm not denying our activity may well be contributing to disrupting / influencing those cycles but if those with power - which is not us, the end consumer in the capitalist model - just keep greenwashing while simultaneously pursuing profit above all else, all we can do is hope for the best, and live in the moment.

AI is being pushed, promoted and worshipped because of short term profit and its capability to help "manage" us, yet the environmental impact of that is largely brushed off.

What I'm trying to say, as someone who has reached saturation point, and been in very dark places due to personal events, is to try and detach. Observe by all means, but fixating on one issue is where madness lies.

I wake up every day, check the status of WW3, grumble at AI slop, mutter about general social injustice, pet my cats, drink coffee and hope to live to fight another day, if necessary, although I'm not really good at "fighting" and wonder why we're continually being loaded with information designed to apparently keep us in - well, a state of fear.

I wish the OP well. We live in strange and interesting timez, and how much is by accident, and how much by design is difficult to parse given how odd we are as a species, hard wired for survival yet paradoxically apparently hell bent on self destruction.

The sun is shining. What can we do but make the most of it?

Never heard of this. I concentrate more on the here and now - there’s nothing I can do about this. Putting an empty loo roll in recycling rather than the bathroom bin is not going to cut it.

You are getting a bit carried away OP. And I understand - that the way some of these articles are written it can be difficult to assess them objectively. This isn’t my area of expertise, but I do review scientific studies for a living and analyse data. It’s an important issue to be aware of, but there’s no need to lose all hope just yet.

It is scary. But if you so something like the carbon literacy training, there is also huge reason to hope. Lots of change is happening and the difference between what happens if we act and if we don't is huge. It's so much easier to manage the worry if you're active.

Is the AMOC what most people call the gulf stream?.
No, the gulf stream is one of the components of the AMOC.
https://noc.ac.uk/under-the-surface/atlantic-meridional-overturning-circulation

I suppose it's bad that you said end of the world and I just heard that we might get snow at Christmas.?

Is the AMOC what most people call the gulf stream?
They were talking about this happening in the 70s, then gkobal warming came along. Maybe they'll cancel each other out 😂😋

Is it normal for you to catastrophise? You sound a lot like my husband when he was struggling with anxiety, a social media story about something like this would have caused him to spiral into irrational panic too.

It might be helpful for you to do a bit of research away from social media scaremongering to set your mind at ease.

honestly "is literally about the end of the world within our lifetimes and horrible deaths for us and our children, of either starvation or cold or both. That is now more likely than not going to be our future." is a very extreme grasp to have formed.

We have access to too much information without enough understanding. The scientific papers and modelling that are done on AMOC include things like worst case modelling and percentage chances but the media spin this into a story without giving enough context because it makes it more dramatic.

Yes, the AMOC is showing signs of weakening and we may see a gradual collapse over the next century. When we reach tipping point there will be changes to our climate but it will not be apocalyptic. Changes will take high decades to centuries. Modelling actually suggests that average temperatures in the north of Europe will drop 3-5c with colder winters and dryer summers. We're not going to be plunged into a permanent subzero climate overnight.

Those generations affected will have time to make changes and humanity will adapt as it always has.

What’s the title of it please?

Or OP think of it like this. Will you be regretting on your death bed that you didn't spend more time working/ lobbying against things like eg Trump and his contribution towards destabilising the West? Because I'm not sure that worrying is something we look back on as a good use of our limited time on earth.

I don't worry about things I can't control, that way does madness lay.

My children are already here, that choice has already been made. All I can do is the best I can with what's currently in front of me.

With an aside that climate change models always seem to over predict rather than underpredict (I assume for more news coverage and the hope for more action!) so I cling to hope (maybe a fools hope) that whilst changes are coming, they won't be as extreme as predicted.

The world won't end, but the British Isles will get significantly colder. Look to northern Canada for an example, we're on a parallel with Labrador and Newfoundland. But also Norway and Sweden. Insulate your house and learn cross country skiing?

Not much us little people can do about it really. I won’t spend what time I do have worrying about things I can’t change.

But did you know about the South Sea anomaly OP? If you break it down in terms of science, we don't as a species look for trouble outside of our little ecosystem. Little point worrying about the magnetosphere if your house is being repossessed.

Because if we did. If we thought logically and with a bigger, longterm worldview, we wouldn't have children. If we was all highly aware and clever and logical it would make sence to Jack it in as a species. But that's not good for evolution. Surving in the moment keeps you alive in terms of our hunting roots.

I did a Environmental Biology degree decades ago. The conclusion of which is that we are fucked. I must be on adverage the most aware and yet the least worried.

But I firmly believe in nature and as I say find comfort that we can't control everything.

If you got every reader on MN to make worrying about this a top priority, what would it achieve? If you got every top scientist to work on this what would it achieve?

Also, a bit like all these disaster films, if you know that that humanity would die out in five years, what would you do? Carry on or raid the shops?

I'm also extremely worried about AI as someone who was a senior programmer..I was laughing at how shit it was 15 years ago. It's evolved so fast it's surpassed us now. So what world ending sanario should I worry about as someone who knows more than most about the environment and IT?

I just can't freak out and get up in the morning and see the point. One day earth will die when the sun dies. This isn't forever. At that point, in all of eternity, even if another planet forms life, there will be no trace at all that humanity ever existed. Every find, discovery, peace of art, civilisation. Utterly obliterated. That's not a high possibility. It's a proven fact as all stars / sun's die.

Yet I'm up doing my washing. Unless your religious. It's all just a meaningless happy accident life. Enjoy as it's short and you never, ever come back.

I don’t know why you’d even give this any headspace tbh.

I’m with this. We just do what we can and enjoy the short time we have on this earth. We could be dead tomorrow anyway.