“This is civilisation changing stuff”: Is AMOC the hardest climate story to tell?

About this episode

The episode discusses the complexities of communicating the risks associated with the weakening Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and its potential impacts on climate and society.

Europe plunged into a deep freeze. Life as we know it upended. The 2004 film ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ gave a generation of terrified journalists an impossible task: how do you communicate the counter intuitive threat of dramatically colder winters caused by global warming? David Shukman was one of them. This week, Tom Rivett-Carnac is joined by the veteran BBC Science Editor and author of the upcoming ‘The Response’, to explore the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC: the vast system of currents that helps regulate weather, rainfall and temperature across the Atlantic and far beyond. Recent research suggests it may be weakening faster than previously understood - with potentially profound consequences for food systems, ecosystems and global stability. They speak with Dr Willem Huiskamp of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, who explains what AMOC does, and what a much weaker system could mean in practice. Then Tom and David reflect on the harder questions. How do we communicate a risk this vast and uncertain without paralysing people or losing them entirely? Are we socially and politically prepared for -50C winters in parts of Europe? And are we…

People in this episode

Host: Tom Rivett-Carnac

Guests: David Shukman, Dr Willem Huiskamp

Topics covered

• climate change
• AMOC
• communication
• weather patterns
• global stability
• food systems
• ecosystems

Keywords

• AMOC
• climate communication
• cold winters
• global warming
• weather regulation
• climate impact
• food security

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research

Books & works: The Day After Tomorrow, The Response

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