When Will the Gulf Stream Collapse?

There is so much we don’t know about all the moving parts that affect regulating our planet’s climate.

Are greenhouse gas emissions making it harder to reflect the energy from incoming solar radiation back into space?  Yes.  There are crackpots who claim otherwise, but this theory, called “anthropogenic global warming (AGW)”, is as universally accepted among climate scientists as the theory of evolution is among biologists.

That said, we’re constantly learning more about the pace with which all this is happening.  As an example, we keep improving our capacity to look inside massive glaciers to assess their “health.”

Moving on with the subject above, here’s an AI summary of “thermohaline circulation” of which the Gulf Stream is a major part:

Thermohaline circulation is a global, slow-moving current system in the ocean driven by differences in water temperature (thermo) and salinity (haline), which affect density. It functions as a large-scale “ocean conveyor belt” that redistributes heat from the equator to the poles, delivers oxygen to the deep ocean, and plays a vital role in regulating global climate. 

How far are we from disrupting this entire system?  I don’t think anybody really knows.