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New study warns we are rapidly approaching Climate Tipping Points - urgently needs immediate action [1]

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Date: 2022-09-09

Another scientific study warning the world that we are rapidly approaching Climate Tipping Points that will accelerate global warming, by creating dangerous feedback loops when those tipping points are reached.

Humans must limit warming to avoid climate tipping points, new study finds By REBECCA HERSHER Humans must limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid runaway ice melting, ocean current disruption and permanent coral reef death, according to new research by an international group of climate scientists. The new study is the latest and most comprehensive evidence indicating that countries must enact policies to meet the temperature targets set by the 2015 Paris agreement, if humanity hopes to avoid potentially catastrophic sea level rise and other worldwide harms. Those targets – to limit global warming to between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius (between 2.7 and 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) compared to preindustrial times – are within reach if countries follow through on their current promises to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The new study makes it clear that every tenth of a degree of warming that is avoided will have huge, long-term benefits. For example, the enormous ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are already melting rapidly, adding enormous amounts of fresh water to the ocean and driving global sea level rise. But there is a tipping point after which that melting becomes irreversible and inevitable, even if humans rein in global warming entirely. The new study estimates that, for the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets, that tipping point falls somewhere around 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming.

The study also identifies two other looming climate tipping points. Between 1.5 and 2 degrees Celsius of warming, mass death of coral reefs would occur and a key ocean current in the North Atlantic ocean would cease to circulate, affecting weather in many places including Europe. And beyond 2 degrees Celsius of warming, even more climate tipping points abound. Larger ocean currents stop circulating, the Amazon rainforest dies and permanently frozen ground thaws, releasing the potent greenhouse gas methane. Cutting greenhouse gas emissions quickly and permanently would avoid such catastrophes.

Wildfire in Alaska as animals try to save themselves in a stream

Of course the ultra-corrupt Republicans don’t care about the scientific consensus, they just want to please the American Petroleum Institute, and the Koch Network. So it’s up to us to elect as many Democrats as we can. The future of our country, and the future of human civilization depend on our drastically reducing GHG emissions over the next couple of decades. That should be obvious to every government on earth, since every country is seeing the profoundly destructive effects of runaway global warming.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/9/2121842/-New-study-warns-we-are-rapidly-approaching-Climate-Tipping-Points-urgently-needs-immediate-action

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