AMOC Weakening Faster Than IPCC Models Say with Climate Scientist Gabriel Pontes

In this Climate Chat discussion, we speak with climate scientist Gabriel Pontes about his recent paper in Nature Geoscience titled "Weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation driven by subarctic freshening since the mid-twentieth century." Gabriel's research shows that the AMOC is weakening faster than previous climate models show, including models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The faster weakening is caused by a number of factors including fresh water intrusion into the North Atlantic Ocean from melting Arctic ice. Gabriel M. Pontes is a research scientist at the Climate Change Research Centre (CCRC) and the Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Sciences (ACEAS) at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). His work resolves around the oceans' role in the climate system, how oceans had been affected by ice sheets, carbon dioxide and solar radiation in the past and what we can learn from that to inform the future of the oceans. To achieve this he perform simulations with global climate. His recent focus has been focusing on the ocean's response to ice sheet melting and how it impacts global and regional climate. Gabriel's UNSW web page: https://www.unsw.edu.au/staff/gabriel-pontes Nature Geoscience paper (paywall): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-024-01568-1 ResearchGate (free PDF of the paper): https://www.researchgate.net/publication/385921849_Weakening_of_the_Atlantic_Meridional_Overturning_Circulation_driven_by_subarctic_freshening_since_the_mid-twentieth_century Article on Gabriel's paper in The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/meltwater-from-greenland-and-the-arctic-is-weakening-ocean-circulation-speeding-up-warming-down-south-238302 Follow Gabriel's UNSW research group on X/Twitter: @ccrc_unsw Follow Gabriel's UNSW research group on Bluesky: @ccrc.bsky.social ---------------- Follow Dan Miller on X/Twitter: @danmiller999 Follow Dan Miller on Bluesky: @danmiller999.bsky.social and @climatechat.bsky.social To join the Zoom discussion, visit Dan's Clubhouse room. The Clubhouse link is provided in Dan's Twitter feed. You can also leave a question in the YouTube Live chat. Please begin your question with "Question:" to make it easy for our mods to spot it. For more Climate Chat episodes, see our YouTube home page: https://www.youtube.com/@climatechat For recent YouTube Live Climate Chat programs: https://www.youtube.com/@climatechat/streams