Yet more science warning climate catastrophe looms
Potentially catastrophic tipping points may be much closer than we thought
Scientific reports describing the dangers of climate change are now so frequent that unless you track the relevant journals carefully it’s easy to miss something really significant. A study published September 9th in the journal Science is easily among the most dramatic and worrisome I’ve read in many months.
The new analysis updates our knowledge of tipping points, abrupt and potentially irreversible changes in the earth’s climate system with grave consequences. Multiple such possibilities have been discussed by scientists for more than two decades and were among concerns responsible for the Paris Agreement aim to limit warming to well below 2 °C (3.6F) and ideally to 1.5 °C. The number and consequence of tipping points is now thought to be much greater than originally thought.
The authors, ten leading climate scientists from the U.S. and Europe, assessed more than 200 previous studies on past tipping points, climate observations and modelling. They reviewed the evidence for 16 distinct tipping points, nine global “core” tipping elements which contribute substantially to Earth system functioning such as the collapse of several enormous ice sheets with the potential to raise sea levels several meters or more. The team of authors also…
