A few days ago the alarms went off: the Atlantic Circular Current (AMOC) could collapse. A study carried out by researchers from the University of Copenhagen and published in the journal Nature assured that this meteorological phenomenon could occur between 2025 and 2095, focusing on the year 2057.. The last time this happened on Earth was 150,000 years ago and we have heard its name more than once, especially thanks to the cinema: the Ice Age or last ice age.. But why does this occur? What does it mean when the Atlantic current collapses? What consequences could I produce on the planet? And in Spain? Is this phenomenon likely to occur in this century?

“This scientific article is one of the many that try to analyze ocean currents, something very important and that is certainly a great unknown of our climate system,” says Rubén del Campo, spokesman for the State Meteorological Agency, Aemet. “This work goes to say that they have detected some signs that the Atlantic current is slowing down and that it could even collapse.. Although they put it at 2057, they give a wide range,” he explains, adding that “there are other experts who disagree and it must be said that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) considers that it is very unlikely that this collapse will occur in the century XXI”.

For his part, the professor of Physical Geography at the University of Barcelona, Javier Martín-Vide, endorses the theory of the Danish scientists. “The fact that the current of the oceans was interrupted was already talked about more than fifteen years ago, in 2007, and then it cooled down a bit.. It is very probable that this will happen on the dates indicated in the study”, he says, also emphasizing that “Nature magazine is the most important scientifically and what they publish goes through important filters”. The expert also assures that “from a physical point of view it is coherent and consistent”.

But what is an Atlantic Circular Current (AMOC) collapse? Del Campo explains it in a simplified way, although he emphasizes that it is a “very complex phenomenon”: “There is an ocean current in the Atlantic that transports warm waters from low latitudes to high latitudes. In the North Atlantic this superficial circulation sinks because there is a greater density (salinity and temperature) of the waters and it returns through the depths to the south”. Del Campo also adds that “due to factors such as the loss of ice by frozen masses such as Greenland, fresh water is added to the circulation and then the sinking of cold waters is not as effective and slows down, which can have consequences on the climate that translate into less heat transport from south to north”.

Because of this, the slowing of the current could lead to “abrupt climate change in Europe”. Thus, ice advances would occur in areas located further north, such as Iceland or northern Scandinavia and “global warming would be slowed down on the continent.”

In this sense, Martín-Vide gives a very clear example that makes us understand how the AMOC works and what would happen with its possible collapse.. “If we compare the New York winter with that of Lisbon or Porto, the cities are at the same sea level, bathed by the same ocean, almost on the same parallel and at the same latitude,” he explains, and continues: “In New York, winter It is harsh, there is snowfall every year, while in Lisbon there is hardly any snow and frost is very rare.This is because our Atlantic coasts are bathed by a branch of the Gulf Stream that is part of the Atlantic and is warm. In the United States the Labrador current, which is cold, goes down.”

The professor also assures that in the event of this disruption, “there would be a paradox that, given global warming, we would have a hiatus of a few years. Winters would be colder in this western part of Europe until this circuit, which affects the entire planet, is reconstituted,” he points out.. “The bottom line is that the behavior of the weather has a lot to do with the ocean, the weather as a whole, and the atmosphere.”

In this sense, Del Campo adds that another of the consequences would be that “rainfall patterns would vary clearly and Western Europe and Spain would become drier areas, where rainfall would be less. In Spain, perhaps there could also be more winters cold, but there are many uncertainties,” he asserts.

The smallest extent of ice in history

In short, the main cause of this future collapse is climate change, since it is this that causes the melting of the ice masses on the planet.. This is what in scientific language is known as a Heinrich event: events or episodes that occurred during the period of the last ice age (Wisconsin) and in which waves of icebergs broke off the glaciers and crossed the North Atlantic. Icebergs carried bulk rocks eroded by glaciers and when they melted offshore, they fell to the bottom as drifting debris.

According to Del Campo, the melting of frozen masses is a feasible event, especially in Greenland and the Arctic. “At the beginning of the 80s, in the Arctic there were seven million square kilometers covered by ice, now this extension is around 4 and a half million. There has been a significant decline of around 13% per decade,” says. “That in summer, but in winter it is also observed that in about 18 years there has been an ice loss of 16%.”

In addition, the Greenland glaciers are melting “6 or 7 times faster than 25 or 30 years ago”, something much more problematic than the melting of the Arctic “because it does raise sea levels”.. In addition, in Antarctica, where according to the expert “there is more uncertainty”, it has been possible to verify that “winter is being (there it is the cold season now) with less ice extension since there are records”. In Del Campo's words, this “is a very unusual situation.”

The worst case scenario

And although many scientists reiterate that the Atlantic event will not occur in the coming decades, the worst possible scenario in the face of climate change and the collapse of currents would be devastating for some areas of the planet. “Massive melting of the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica could occur with catastrophic consequences. Total stoppage of the current would change the climate, but massive melting could lead to catastrophic sea level rise in densely populated coastal cities.”

The director of NASA, Bill Nelson, has confirmed this Thursday that the American agency has appointed a “committee of very distinguished scientists” to prepare a report on extraterrestrial life “in the face of all suspicions”.

In a press conference held in Argentina, after a meeting with President Alberto Fernández, Nelson explained that the deadline for disseminating responses is around one month: “This committee is deliberating and will release its report publicly next month.

“In the meantime, I can tell you that they are going to use our equipment in space to try to identify these phenomena,” Nelson said, in response to the alien controversy surrounding the United States after former officer Grusch told Capitol Hill that the Pentagon has been aware of the extraterrestrial presence for years.

NASA and the Casa Rosada have signed the union of the Latin American country to the Artemisa Agreements, which seek to establish an area of international collaboration in the space framework. With the accession of Argentina, there are already 28 countries attached to the agreements.

After several months in which the Ukrainian authorities have admitted that their counteroffensive was going slower than initially planned, Zelensky's troops are celebrating an eventual change in their strategy that began at the end of this week.. “Glory to Ukraine”, the Ukrainian president wrote on his Twitter account after the “liberation of Staromaiorske” (Donetsk municipality), in the southeast of the country. These advances have come as the African Union has called on Russian President Vladimir Putin for a ceasefire.

In this way, Ukraine recovers a municipality that allows to improve the tactical position of the troops, as explained by the retired Ukrainian colonel Serguí Grabski. These advances allow them to approach the second line of Russian defense in the southeast, which is difficult to access due to the land fortifications that protect it.

Despite the euphoria that this small progress could bring, Grabski has pointed out that “it is too early to celebrate it as a great success of the Ukrainian army.”. However, it “clearly shows that Ukrainian forces can advance in harsh conditions,” he added.

Despite Ukrainian progress, the Russian side has not spoken out. They have only affirmed that the following points of the Zelensky counteroffensive will take place in Bakhmut and Zaporizhia, as confirmed by the spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, Igor Konashenkov.

Putin, pressured from Africa

In the midst of the advances of the Ukrainian troops, a new day of the summit between Russia and Africa held in Saint Petersburg took place this Friday. The longer it lasts, the more unpredictable it becomes. Putin has shown that he is willing to talk,” said the president of Comoros, Azali Assoumani, acting president of the African Union.. For his part, Putin did not close the door on this option either: “It is an acute issue and we are not avoiding its consideration.”

However, the Russian leader also urged African countries to talk with Ukraine, which, in his view, is closed to dialogue as long as the onslaught on the battlefield continues.. “It is necessary to talk to the other side as well, although we are grateful to our African friends for their attention to the issue.”

grain agreement

Other issues that have been put on the table have been the Black Sea grain agreement, of which Russia has recently ceased to be a part. In this regard, Putin has stressed that he “promised” to help Burkina Faso, Somalia, Mali, Zimbabwe, Eritrea and the Central African Republic with shipments of free grain.

The president of Egypt, Abdelfatah al Sisi, has urged “urgently” to find a solution to the problem of food supply for the “most needy” countries. Given this, António Guterres, Secretary General of the UN, has assured that this measure will only cause a notable increase in prices.

Finally, Russia concluded that it will continue to supply grain to Africa free of charge through bilateral contracts after almost doubling these exports in the first quarter of the year.

The British newspaper The Guardian has published as the cover of its weekly edition an image with the flag of Spain under the shadow of an eagle, with the headline 'A long shadow', to refer to the slowdown that the general elections of the July 23th.

The Guardian wonders if “Vox's far-right bubble has burst” and states that before the elections it seemed that Vox's arrival in government was an “inevitable conclusion” and that the elections have left Spain with a divided Congress and a principle of blocking.

In that same edition, they also analyze the shadow of Francoism that still hangs over the country, as they wanted to caricature on the cover.

The designer of the cover, Federico Yankelevich, has explained what he wanted to represent on it: “The values of the old Catholic national morality loom large over Spanish democracy”, something that “summarizes the anguish felt by many in the country”.

The day after the elections, the British newspaper echoed the results of the elections in Spain and published: “The Conservatives do not achieve the expected majority”, to which it added, “the Popular Party and the Socialists of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez declare victory with weeks of negotiations ahead.”

The Miami Beach Police shot dead a man who, at knifepoint, was holding a woman inside a Victoria's Secret store, on the tourist street of Lincoln Road, local media reported this Friday.

The event occurred on Thursday afternoon, when the agents were alerted to an incident inside this premises located in one of the main commercial arteries of the South Beach neighborhood, according to the police of this city in South Florida (USA).

Upon arrival at the store, police found a man holding a knife to a woman's throat and ordered her to drop the weapon, the police agency reported on Twitter.

In view of his refusal, an officer shot him in the head.

The man, whose identity has not been released, was later taken in critical condition to a local hospital where he died from the gunshot around midnight.

Witnesses told the local channel WPLG that the man was holding two women hostage, apparently a mother and her daughter, and had been discovered stealing from the well-known women's underwear store.

“He saved the life of the young. It was heroic,” Robert Hernandez, president of the Miami Beach Fraternal Order of Police, told the Miami Herald about the officer who shot the suspect and who, he added, “had to make a split-second decision.”