
ABSTRACT NOAA data confirms Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) weakening: 12% abyssal decline (2000-2020), 0.46 Sv/decade since 1950. Statistical models project collapse 2025-2095, highest probability ~2057.Simultaneously, AI infrastructure thermal pollution grew from negligible (2015) to 500-1000 TWh/year (2024), projected over 2000 TWh/year by 2030. This thermal energy, predominantly dumped into ocean and coastal waters, directly accelerates the stratification that drives thermohaline circulation collapse.This analysis demonstrates that exponential scaling of AI infrastructure — following historical patterns of technological deployment — will transform currently “negligible” thermal pollution into the primary forcing mechanism for AMOC collapse within 10-15 years. Historical analogs — the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum ocean anoxia event and the Permian-Triassic extinction — demonstrate that ocean anoxia leads to hydrogen sulfide accumulation and catastrophic release events. The convergence of AMOC collapse and accelerating thermal pollution creates conditions for widespread coastal euxinia (anoxic, sulfidic waters) by 2050-2070, with hydrogen sulfide release events capable of killing thousands to hundreds of thousands in coastal cities.Five identifiable companies — Makai Ocean Engineering, Sanmina Corporation, Microsoft, Schneider Electric, and Vertiv — are the primary architects and operators of ocean thermal pollution infrastructure. The critical issue is not that ocean thermal infrastructure exists, but WHERE it is deployed. Data centers and cooling systems placed in zones that strengthen thermohaline gradients can be beneficial. Those placed in stratification-prone regions or AMOC downwelling zones accelerate collapse.The companion addendum, The Haline Correction (March 2026), completes the intervention architecture by addressing the second variable in thermohaline circulation: salinity. Greenland ice sheet melt — approximately 270 billion metric tons of freshwater annually — is flooding North Atlantic deep-water formation zones, diluting surface salinity and suppressing the density-driven sinking that powers the AMOC conveyor. Fusion-powered desalination at continental scale produces two outputs: freshwater for inland distribution to irrigate deserts (Sahara, Gobi, American Southwest), and concentrated brine for strategic injection into North Atlantic formation zones at 500-1000 meters depth, restoring the salinity gradient that meltwater is destroying. The waste product of solving water scarcity becomes the input for solving ocean circulation collapse. Together with the thermal intervention proposed in the parent paper (the Hawaiian pump concept — cold-water injection via Mauna Kea/Haleakalā elevation and gravity feed), these constitute a complete thermohaline management system. The industrial analog is the bright acid copper electroforming bath: a multi-variable system maintained within a precise envelope by continuous monitoring and active adjustment. The ocean is the same system at planetary scale. The principle is identical. The chemistry does not care.This corpus calls for immediate international regulatory framework governing ocean thermal infrastructure deployment, mandatory environmental impact assessment for all ocean cooling systems, 12-month moratorium on new deployments in prohibited zones pending comprehensive NOAA assessment of gradient effects, and — upon achievement of fusion energy — binding thermohaline regulation treaties conditioning fusion technology access on participation in coordinated planetary chemistry management. The ocean is not a corporate thermal dumping ground. It is critical planetary infrastructure that requires active management — thermal and haline — under strict international regulation, in the right locations, with proper gradient management. Keywords: AMOC collapse, ocean anoxia, hydrogen sulfide, AI thermal pollution, coastal mass casualty, thermohaline circulation, data centers, dead zones, euxinia, NOAA, gradient management, ocean thermal regulation, desalination, brine injection, haline intervention, fusion energy, planetary bath management, electroforming, thermohaline treaty, water scarcity
PETM, international regulation, euxinia, hydrogen sulfide, AI thermal pollution, coastal hydrogen sulfide disaster, thermohaline collapse timeline, environmental policy, Sanmina Corporation, gradient management, ocean anoxia, Project Natick, Vertiv, NOAA, Microsoft, Motivair, Lake Nyos, ocean cooling infrastructure, dead zones, Permian-Triassic, Makai Ocean Engineering, climate tipping points, data centers, coastal mass casualty, thermohaline circulation, ocean thermal regulation, Schneider Electric, AMOC collapse, subsea data centers
PETM, international regulation, euxinia, hydrogen sulfide, AI thermal pollution, coastal hydrogen sulfide disaster, thermohaline collapse timeline, environmental policy, Sanmina Corporation, gradient management, ocean anoxia, Project Natick, Vertiv, NOAA, Microsoft, Motivair, Lake Nyos, ocean cooling infrastructure, dead zones, Permian-Triassic, Makai Ocean Engineering, climate tipping points, data centers, coastal mass casualty, thermohaline circulation, ocean thermal regulation, Schneider Electric, AMOC collapse, subsea data centers
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