Science Alert reports:

A new review of literature on global climate change written by an international team of more than 200 researchers leaves no room for doubt: humanity is heading for disaster, unless significant steps are taken to change that course.

How disastrous? The research team mentions trillions of US dollars in climate-related damage, billions of people pushed into hardship around the world, and millions of lives lost as a result of a rapidly warming planet.

The report focuses specifically on tipping points – sudden, large scale shifts in ecological conditions caused by a culmination of smaller environmental changes. Those cataclysmic shifts include the widespread destruction of coral reefs and the collapse of the biggest ice sheets, each of which would in turn lead to even greater widespread disruption.

The report identifies a number of interactions between major tipping elements around the globe, finding the majority of which exert a destabilizing influence. Some ecosystems on the verge of significant change, like Greenland’s ice sheets, have such low thresholds for tipping, they could be considered instigators of chains of effects that ripple around the globe, sending other systems crashing.

“Our research shows that in the past, even small natural changes in greenhouse gas concentrations had a domino effect changing different parts of our planet, from sea level to entire ecosystems,” says Earth scientist Caroline Lear, from Cardiff University in the UK.

“Without more significant climate action we expect to see a similar domino effect from the much faster changes in greenhouse gas concentrations caused by burning fossil fuels.” [Continue reading…]