Earth Veering Closer To Dangerous Tipping Points
The world is edging dangerously closer to triggering the collapse of five of Earth’s crucial systems, which could have devastating consequences for the whole planet, a team of 200 scientists warns in a sweeping new report. The report looks at “tipping points” in the natural world, finding that the Earth’s aggressive warming is particularly endangering five of these tipping points: the collapse of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets; mass die-offs of coral reefs; permafrost thawing on a regional scale; and the failure of the North Atlantic Subpolar Gyre circulation. Passing these tipping points in any of these systems could irrevocably change all of Earth’s ecosystems; the only solution, researchers say, is to aggressively bring down emissions and restore nature. “Tipping points in the Earth system pose threats of a magnitude never faced by humanity,” the University of Exeter’s Global Systems Institute’s Tim Lenton, the report’s lead author, said in a statement. “They can trigger devastating domino effects, including the loss of whole ecosystems and capacity to grow staple crops, with societal impacts including mass displacement, political instability and financial collapse.” (AP, The Guardian, Politico, Bloomberg)
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