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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/apr/23/catastrophic-climate-event-scientists-atlantic-system-collapse-billionaire-existential-crisis>
"The poor and middle pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the very rich pay
lawyers – and the ultra-rich pay politicians. It’s not an original remark, but
it bears repeating until everyone has heard it. The more money billionaires
accumulate, the greater their control of the political system – which means
they pay less tax, which means they accumulate more, which means their control
intensifies.
They reshape the world to suit their demands. One of the symptoms of the
pathology known as “billionaire brain” is an inability to see beyond their own
short-term gain. They would sack the planet for a few more stones on the
pointless mountain of wealth. And we can see it happening. Last week delivered
the biggest news of the year so far, perhaps the biggest news of the century.
But partly because billionaires own most of the media, most people never heard
it. We might find ourselves committed to a civilisation-ending event before we
even learn that such a thing is possible.
The news is that the state of a crucial oceanic circulation system has been
reassessed by scientists. Some now believe that, as a result of climate
breakdown changing the temperature and salinity of seawater, it is more likely
than not to collapse. This system – known as the Atlantic meridional
overturning circulation (Amoc) – delivers heat from the tropics to the North
Atlantic. Recent research suggests that if it shuts down, it could cause both a
massive drop in average winter temperatures in northern Europe and drastic
changes in the Amazon’s water cycles. This could help tip the rainforest into
cascading collapse and trigger further disaster.
Amoc’s shutdown is likely also to cause an acceleration of sea level rise on
the east coast of the US, threatening cities. It could also raise Antarctic
temperatures by roughly 6C and release a vast pulse of carbon currently stored
in the Southern Ocean, accelerating climate catastrophe.
Even when the countervailing effects of generalised global heating are taken
into account, a further paper proposes, the net impact in northern Europe would
be periods of extreme cold – including events in which temperatures in London
fall to -19C, in Edinburgh to -30C and in Oslo to -48C. Sea ice in February
would extend as far as Lincolnshire. Our climate would change drastically, with
the likelihood of far greater extremes, such as massive winter storms. Rain-fed
arable agriculture would become impossible almost everywhere in the UK.
This shift, on any realistic human scale, would be irreversible. Its speed is
likely to outrun our ability to adapt. Amoc shutdowns, driven by natural
climate variability, have happened before. But not in the era of large-scale
human civilisation."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
