Gulf Stream

The Gulf Stream is a strong current of warm water that flows from the Gulf of Mexico into the Atlantic Ocean, and runs from the East Coast of the United States across the Atlantic and north past Western Europe. Without the Gulf Stream, which is part of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a system of ocean currents that is vital to Earth’s climate, places like England would be much colder. A new study by Susanne Ditlevsen and Peter Ditlevsen, researchers with the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, has concluded that the AMOC is at risk of collapsing around mid-century, much earlier than scientists had previously thought.