The Earth Is Nearing an Environmental Tipping Point

"The emissions in our atmosphere are at work, heating the planet, acidifying our oceans, and leading to climate-fueled disasters: heat waves, fires, flooding, droughts, and storms. For some climate impacts, devastation can be followed by the painstaking work of recovery. But for many natural systems, like our tropical coral reefs, the stress we are putting on them is reaching the realms of permanent decline and ultimate collapse."

"As we near 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming-the globally agreed upon limit of the Paris Agreement- we risk triggering tipping points. They are slumbering giants that in their healthy state dampen stress and cool the planet; systems with thresholds that, once crossed, lead to irreversible shifts, from dampening to amplifying stress, causing loss of resilience of the planet and accelerating the pace of change."

"Once tipping points are crossed, there is also a nontrivial risk of dangerous cascades, where the first set of tipped systems have knock-on effects on other tipping elements, pushing them across their thresholds, triggering a domino sequence, and increasing further the likelihood of Earth drifting away from its stable state. Many tipping elements are now well-known: the Amazon rainforest, the Greenland Ice Sheet, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (or AMOC)."

Global greenhouse gas emissions reached a record high in 2024, rising 0.8 percent from 2023. Atmospheric emissions heat the planet, acidify oceans, and drive climate-fueled disasters including heat waves, fires, flooding, droughts, and storms. Some ecosystems can recover, but many natural systems, especially tropical coral reefs, face permanent decline and collapse. Approaching 1.5°C of warming increases the risk of triggering tipping points that shift systems from dampening to amplifying stress, reducing planetary resilience. Crossed tipping points can cascade, pushing other elements past thresholds. Known tipping elements include the Amazon rainforest, the Greenland Ice Sheet, and the AMOC, though exact thresholds remain uncertain.

Read at WIRED