Climate disaster ‘just decades away’

EARTH may be decades away from a climatic tipping point which triggers ‘runaway global warming’ and threatens the future of humanity, scientists warned yesterday.

The threshold will be reached when average global temperatures are only around 2C higher than they were in pre-industrial times, according to researchers. They are already 1C higher – and rising.

Feedback mechanisms acting ‘like dominoes’ will lead to a ‘Hothouse Earth’ period of uncontrollable climate change, the study predicts.

Temperatures will eventually stabilise at C-5C above pre-industrial levels, the researchers wrote in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

If this happens, swathes of the planet around the equator will become uninhabitable and sea levels will rise up to 60 metres (197ft).

The research highlighted ten feedback processes – including shrinking ice sheets and widespread droughts – that are predicted to kick in at around 2C of global warming.

These ‘tipping elements’ could turn natural carbon storage systems or ‘sinks’ – such as plants – into powerful greenhouse gas emitters.

Co-author Johan Rockstrom, of the University of Stockholm, said: ‘These tipping elements can potentially act like a row of dominoes. Once one is pushed over, it pushes Earth towards another. It may be very difficult or impossible to stop the whole row tumbling over.’

Avoiding a Hothouse Earth would require ‘deep cuts’ in greenhouse gas emissions and efforts to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the study said.

Chris Rapley, a climate science professor at University College London, said Hothouse Earth would pose ‘an existential threat to humanity’.

SHOPPERS face higher prices for fruit and veg because the heatwave has left crops ‘cooking in the fields’.

Vegetables such as broccoli, carrots, peas and onions have been dramatically affected by the soaring temperatures and lack of rain.

Total harvests are down, with produce smaller than normal and more likely to carry signs of heat damage.

As a result, growers have asked retailers to relax their rules on the size and shape of produce they will accept.

The supermarket price of broccoli, at £1.54, is up by 25.8 per cent a kilo compared with a year ago – after the high temperatures have simply stopped the plants growing, according to research published by The Grocer.

As temperatures soar to 34C (93.2F) in some parts of the country today, food suppliers warned of the effect of the heatwave in the fields.

Paul Murphy of Yes Chef, which supplies produce to restaurants, said: ‘Broccoli is cooking in the fields. Farmers can’t get them out of the ground quick enough before the sun yellows them. We’ve not experienced anything like this in decades.

‘The prices we expect to see over the next couple of weeks could be nothing compared with what’s in store for autumn if the heat has done the damage growers think.’

And Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said: ‘The hot, dry conditions we have seen … means the pressure on prices will continue for some time to come.’

The price of a kilo bag of ownlabel carrots is some 8.3 per cent more than last year, at 65p on average, while a pack of three large onions is up 3.5 per cent to an average of 75p.

An iceberg lettuce is now 52p on average, which is up from 49p at this time last year. However, while sweltering temperatures are expected today, farmers may soon have some respite.

By this evening, thundery showers are set to hit the South-East, bringing lightning and up to an inch of rain in just two hours.

Meanwhile, cloudy and cooler conditions, including rain, are due in northern and western areas today.

The fresher weather will spread south and east as the weekend approaches. Warmer conditions are not due to return until at least the middle of next week.

However, the Met Office still predicts the UK could see warmer thanaverage temperatures continuing into the autumn.

The outlook shows an increased chance of high-pressure systems, meaning settled conditions are more likely than unsettled for the next three months.