CNN’s AMOC Alarm Debunked: Ocean Current Collapse Claims Crumble Under Scrutiny
13 hours ago Anthony Watts 10 Comments
CNN-Screenshot-2025-05-22
A recent CNN article by Laura Paddison, titled “A crucial system of ocean currents is slowing. It’s already supercharging sea level rise in the US,” references new research on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) to claim the current is slowing down leading to rising seas and costly, deadly coastal flooding. This false claim is based solely on a single, as yet unpublished and unverified, study which used a single climate model’s projections. Evidence, such as other studies and historical reporting on AMOC trends demonstrate that there is no consensus on the status of the AMOC. Rather, scientists’ predictions and the media’s reporting on the AMOC have been flip-flopping for nearly two decades—unable to decide whether AMOC is speeding up, slowing down, or staying steady.
Figure1. A simplified illustration of the global “conveyor belt” of ocean currents that transport heat around Earth. Red shows surface currents, and blue shows deep currents. Deep water forms where the sea surface is the densest. The background color shows sea-surface density. The AMOC is the currents in the Atlantic Ocean off the east coast of the US. Source: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio.
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation has been among the climate alarmists’ top go-to bogeyman for years. There was even a sci-fi movie made about its collapse, The The Day After Tomorrow, in which the AMOC;s collapse leads to a new ice age within days. Whether the movie made for good drama is debatable, but what is not debatable was the vigorous criticism that climate scientists leveled against its portrayal of climate change. Looking at the history of AMOC predictions, according to some studies, it’s collapsing. In others, it’s strengthening. Sometimes studies suggest that the AMOC has not changed measurably at all in recent years. The problem is scientists have not had a reliable way to observe AMOC long enough to make definitive statements. That hasn’t stopped the press from pushing speculative, often contradictory, claims based on every new study.
Heartland President James Taylor documented this ever-changing narrative in his 2021 article at Climate Realism, highlighting how climate activists have repeatedly contradicted themselves on AMOC trends. One year it’s accelerating—fueling European warming—another year it’s stalling, threatening a new Ice Age. The takeaway? We simply don’t know enough to draw sweeping conclusions, let alone restructure financial lending or credit scoring based on these speculations.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/05/24/cnns-amoc-alarm-debunked-ocean-current-collapse-claims-crumble-under-scrutiny/
