23 Jun 2026
Photo by Ian Hutchinson The US National Science Foundation (NSF) has abandoned its plan to dismantle the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), a $368 million network of more than 900 instruments, after a bipartisan revolt in Congress. The agency confirmed on 18 June that it “will not proceed with further removal or descoping of equipment from the […]
09 Jun 2026
Photo by NOAA The Trump administration is dismantling a decade-old network of deep-ocean instruments that scientists have relied upon to track climate change, monitor marine heatwaves and study the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). International researchers warn the decision will “severely degrade” weather forecasting and El Niño predictions, with economic consequences they argue far […]
12 May 2026
Photo by Jakob Owens Scientists have published some of the strongest direct observational evidence to date that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, the vast system of ocean currents that regulates climate across Europe and the North Atlantic, has been weakening for nearly two decades, with new modelling suggesting the slowdown could be far more […]
21 Apr 2026
Photo by Dimitry B Two new studies paint an alarming picture of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) – the vast ocean current system that regulates climate across Europe, Africa and the Americas. Scientists say the AMOC is both already weakening and significantly more likely to collapse than previously thought. The future: models were […]
14 Oct 2025
Photo by NEOM The world faces a “new reality” as it reaches the first of many Earth system tipping points that will cause catastrophic harm unless humanity takes urgent action, according to a landmark report released on 13th October by the University of Exeter and international partners. The Global Tipping Points Report 2025 finds […]
13 Feb 2024
Instruments deployed in the ocean starting in 2004 show that the Atlantic Ocean circulation has observably slowed over the past two decades, possibly to its weakest state in almost a millennium. Studies also suggest that the circulation has reached a dangerous tipping point in the past that sent it into a precipitous, unstoppable decline, and that it could hit that tipping point again as […]
08 Jun 2021
A new study, led by the universities of Exeter and Oxford, and published in Nature Geoscience (paywall), pinpoints the causes of monthly and annual Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) variation and finds a differing picture at two key locations. The AMOC, which carries warm water from the tropics northward and makes areas including north-west Europe warmer than […]
02 Mar 2021
Atlantic Ocean circulation at weakest in a millennium, say scientists https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/feb/25/atlantic-ocean-circulation-at-weakest-in-a-millennium-say-scientists?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other Potsdam Institute: 02/25/2021 – ‘Never before in over 1000 years the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), also known as Gulf Stream System, has been as weak as in the last decades. This is the result of a new study by scientists from Ireland, Britain […]
