The study thus places the Gulf Stream on the list of climate systems that potentially face an irreversible turning point with far-reaching consequences.
The Nordic countries, the United Kingdom and North America can affected by storms, rising sea levels, icy harbors and frost-damaged crops.
But even the monsoon rains, which are crucial for the cultivation of food for billions of people, the Amazon jungle and the ice cover in Antarctica can get a crack.
The effect will not occur immediately, but as a gradual deterioration over decades.
The Greenland pump can still be saved
This is not the first time the critical condition of the circulation has led to it newspaper headlines in recent years, but scientists can not indicate a time when the Gulf Stream will collapse.
According to the UN Climate Panel it is currently unlikely that the catastrophe will occur during this century.
In study estimates that the Gulf Stream in a reasonable scenario will continue for about three centuries from 1990 – but that the increasing amount of meltwater from the Greenland ice sheet is a very large and immeasurable factor.
At best, the Gulf Stream can still be saved if a massive, global effort succeeds in reducing greenhouse gas emissions – mainly carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide – that drive rising temperatures on our globe.
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