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recent bookmarks from jmClimate emergency: world 'may already have crossed several tipping points’2019-11-27T21:57:36+00:00
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/nov/27/climate-emergency-world-may-have-crossed-tipping-points?CMP=share_btn_tw
jmThe world may already have crossed a series of climate tipping points, according to a stark warning from scientists. This risk is “an existential threat to civilisation”, they say, meaning “we are in a state of planetary emergency”.
Tipping points are reached when particular impacts of global heating become unstoppable, such as the runaway loss of ice sheets or forests. In the past, extreme heating of 5C was thought necessary to pass tipping points, but the latest evidence suggests this could happen between 1C and 2C.
The planet has already heated by 1C and the temperature is certain to rise further, due to past emissions and because greenhouse gas levels are still rising. The scientists further warn that one tipping point, such as the release of methane from thawing permafrost, may fuel others, leading to a cascade.
]]>climate-change climate tipping-points naturehttps://pinboard.in/https://pinboard.in/u:jm/b:3a6e2d36ae93/We aren’t terrified enough about losing the Amazon - MIT Technology Review2019-08-27T09:38:30+00:00
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614222/we-arent-terrified-enough-about-losing-the-amazon/
jm
“Even if it’s a remote possibility, we cannot afford to ignore it,” says Jonathan Foley, executive director of Project Drawdown, a research group focused on decarbonization. “It would be absolutely catastrophic to the Earth’s carbon cycle, water cycle, climate, and biodiversity — not to mention the people who live there.” [...]
“We believe that the sensible course is not only to strictly curb further deforestation, but also to build back a margin of safety against the Amazon tipping point, by reducing the deforested area to less than 20%, for the commonsense reason that there is no point in discovering the precise tipping point by tipping it.”
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