Dangerous climate tipping points will affect Australia. The risks are real and cannot be ignored

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The ice sheets, Amazon rainforest and the Atlantic ocean circulation are among nine recognised global climate tipping elements.

Metadata

Provider:

The Conversation

URL:

https://theconversation.com/dangerous-climate-tipping-points-will-affect-australia-the-risks-are-real-and-cannot-be-ignored-222737

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, February 6, 2024

Information

Tags:

Knowledge, Risk management, Failure, Greenhouse, Research, Element, University, Carbon cycle, Climate, Ice, Meteorology, Weather, Risk, Agriculture

Geotags:

GREENLAND, AUSTRALIA

Summary

Key Points:

The ice sheets, Amazon rainforest and the Atlantic ocean circulation are among nine recognised global climate tipping elements.
Once a tipping point is crossed, changes are often irreversible for a very long time.
Read more:
Climate tipping points are nearer than you think – our new report warns of catastrophic risk

What are climate tipping points?

Climate scientists have known for a while, through paleoclimate records and other evidence, that there are “tipping elements” in the climate system.
Triggering climate tipping points would lead to changes in addition to those commonly included in climate projections.
Triggering one tipping point may trigger other tipping points.

Read more:
Antarctic tipping points: the irreversible changes to come if we fail to keep warming below 2℃

Grappling with deep uncertainties

Researchers from Australian science agencies and universities came together last year to consider what global climate tipping points could mean for Australia.
We considered the nine global climate tipping points – and one of the most relevant regional tipping points for Australia, coral reef die-offs – as defined in a recent scientific review.

There are deep uncertainties about what conditions would trigger tipping points, how they would play out and their likely impacts.
Along with recognising the most urgent point – that deep emission cuts will limit the chances of triggering tipping points – our conclusions cover three areas.
We need more research We need to expand research on paleoclimate records, theory and process understanding, observations, monitoring and modelling.
Australia leads world-class research, including on Antarctica, the Southern Ocean, the carbon cycle, weather processes and ecosystems.
Read more:
Climate 'tipping points' can be positive too – our report sets out how to engineer a domino effect of rapid changes

Michael Grose receives funding from the National Environmental Science Program and the Australian Climate Service. Andy Pitman receives funding from the Australian Research Council.