The Southern Ocean current reverses for the first time, signaling a risk of climate system collapse

By Max Olivier – ThePunjab

A few scientists huddled around the screen, some squinting through fogged-up glasses, one clutching a mug of coffee gone cold an hour earlier. The numbers were wrong. Or rather, they were right, but they described something that was never supposed to happen in our lifetime: the great current encircling Antarctica had changed direction.

No one said anything at first. Just the slap of waves on metal and the wind gnawing at their hoods. Then someone whispered, half-joking, “Did we just break the planet?” A nervous laugh, quickly swallowed. They ran the measurements again. Same result. The Southern Ocean current, the conveyor belt that stabilises much of Earth’s climate, had reversed in a key sector. The screen glowed in the damp lab, a quiet alarm in pixels and graphs. Outside, the sea kept rolling, indifferent. Inside, a single thought spread: *what else is about to flip?