ROANOKE, Va. (WFXR) — Currently, a large section of the United States is experiencing a long-lasting, record-setting heatwave, which scientists predict will continue to move east. As this heatwave continues to impact coastal areas, researchers at Virginia Tech are studying what impact it will have on a critical part of our climate, the oceans.
Researchers are focusing on the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Currents (AMOC), which contains the Gulf Stream in its system. According to a study by the Niels Bor Institute (NBI) conducted last year, the entire AMOC system could collapse as early as 2025.
Virginia Tech Oceanography Professor Dr. Craig Ramseyer believes the alarm bell for the collapse may not ring until closer to 2050 but says the recent record temperatures are a cause for concern. He states that when the collapse happens, it will come with radical changes across the globe, which could include flooding across the East Coast.
“Where a large percentage of our population lives within a mile of a coastline, you start to talk about four, six, eight-foot sea level rise in the next hundred years? It makes a lot of these communities unlivable,” said Ramseyer to WFXR News. “These fundamental changes in the climate system are going to cause huge shifts in things like where we can grow crops, famine, and starvation.”
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), every day in 2024, ocean temperatures around the world have been at a record high. Researchers believe fossil fuels are the cause of a lot of issues currently being seen in the ocean’s climate.
“That is a direct consequence of our inability to prevent, to move our economy away from fossil fuels and prevent this from happening,” said Virginia Tech Assistant Professor of Fish & Wildlife Conservation Dr. Holly Kindsvader.
Researchers say many potential solutions are long-term and rely on policy change. This includes more subsidies for electric vehicles, solar and wind energy investments, and cheaper or free public transit. They also say the US should spend more on alternative energy sources.
“We still subsidize fossil fuels,” said Virginia Tech Fire & Wildlife PHD student Hailey Conrad. “Why are we doing that? If we stopped subsidizing fossil fuels, it would be vastly more economical to go electric.”
Most developed nations promised to be net zero on carbon emissions over the next 25 years. However, Ramseyer says meeting those global goals has to start with action in the United States soon.
“Humans like to look at real tangible things,” said Ramseyer. “And if we could see a real change in the global temperatures, and they know that they had played a little, small part in it, maybe that’s enough for us to implement bigger changes.”