9 climate tipping points pushing Earth to the point of no return
-The world could be heading toward tipping points in the climate system.
-In an interconnected climate system, passing one tipping point may trigger a cascade of irreversible changes.
-As the world continues to warm, some call for urgent global action to avert an “existential threat to civilization.”
We may be about to pass – or may already have passed – tipping points in the Earth’s climate, according to a group of leading scientists.
The scientists analyzed evidence on these nine components of our climate system – called “tipping points” because they are under growing threat of abrupt and irreversible changes.
- Amazon rainforest
- Arctic sea ice
- Atlantic circulation
- Boreal forests
- Coral reefs
- Greenland ice sheet
- Permafrost
- West Antarctic ice sheet
- Part of East Antarctica
Passing one of these tipping points – from the collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet to the loss of coral reefs and the Amazon rainforest – may increase the risk of crossing others, the scientists write in a commentary article in the journal Nature.
Ocean and atmospheric circulation and feedback between these interconnected climate shifts could accelerate the warming process, they warn, triggering a cascade of tipping points or even to a global tipping point – and a less habitable, “hothouse” Earth.
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Πηγή: weforum.org
