The outlook for a climate-regulating ocean current is…not good

A key ocean current that warms Europe is weakening, spurring a controversial megadam proposal

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, ferries warm waters from the tropics northward toward Europe. Recent analyses say the current could weaken by 50 percent by 2100.

Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio/NASA

One of Earth’s most vital ocean currents is rapidly weakening in response to global warming.