The UK could turn as cold as Scandinavia. Why aren’t we preparing?

Climate change is disrupting the Gulf Stream , stopping it from carrying warm water from the Caribbean to the north Atlantic .

Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (Amoc) could shut down entirely in the coming decades , plunging Britain into a Scandinavian climate.

The more carbon we put into the atmosphere, the more likely that becomes.

After a century , Britain would be 4C to 5C colder than today .

Arctic sea ice would spread to the Scottish coast.

As northern Europe cooled, the weather in other parts of the world would be going haywire.

It is thought that an Amoc collapse would push the African monsoonal rains further south and scramble the Amazon ’s dry and rainy seasons.

Laybourn argues that food insecurity would be just the start of our problems.

“The UK might also invest heavily in vertical indoor farming to sustain a considerable amount of domestic food production. Would that be a good idea? How would that affect the public finances? These are the kind of questions that need to be asked. That’s why we need to do a national security risk assessment. “If you saw climate change as a national security issue, you’d be like, Holy moly, Amoc collapse looks like one of the worst things that could happen.’”.