Warming turns---Reducing carbon foot prints is key to solve ice age

However, the extra sea level rise on the east coast, the destruction of fisheries, and the alteration of nutrient cycling in the oceans poses real threats for us and for the ecosystems that support us. Regions like the Galapagos are so rich with life because they are fed by nutrient-rich, oxygenated deep water currents that originate in the poles, and a shutdown of this system could remove much of the nutrients sustaining these hotspots of life. Furthermore, any change in major planetary heat transport systems tends to have dramatic implications for our weather patterns. This could lead to stronger storms in the North Atlantic, reduced crop productivity in Europe, and changes in tropical precipitation patterns.  

The reality, however, is that we are not entirely sure how the slowing of AMOC is going to affect our world just yet. This is an extremely difficult system to predict: we still cannot accurately track fresh water as it incorporates into thermohaline circulation, or account for what could be caused by seasonal changes or by our own activities. But AMOC is slowing, and combined with the other factors changing our climate, we may have to adapt to some major shifts in the coming years.

The changes happening in our world are real, and just because we cannot fully predict them does not mean we should not be wary of their consequences. We would be wise to be diligent in our efforts to reduce our carbon footprint, to study these systems in order to better understand them, and to treat our planet like the fragile, interconnected network that it is.