New modeling suggests the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation could recover if global temperatures fall, but only with carbon dioxide removal on a scale far beyond current capacity. Researchers simulated warming and found the AMOC weakens but does not fully shut down, and would strengthen again within decades if net cooling is achieved. To cool the climate by 0.2C per decade, carbon removal would need to reach around 45 petagrams per year, roughly equal to current annual emissions. That is about 100 times larger than today's removal effort, so the study is more a warning about the cost of delay than a rescue plan. The results come from one climate model, though a separate study also found AMOC slowdown could be reversed. Researchers are now running the same experiment with 10 models to test how robust the finding is.
