Runaway climate change ‘possible in decades’
EARTH MAY be decades away from a climatic tipping point that triggers runaway global warming and threatens the future of humanity, scientists have warned.
The threshold will be reached when average global temperatures are only around 2C higher than they were in pre-industrial times, new research suggests. They are already 1C higher, and rising.
Feedback mechanisms acting “like a row of dominoes” will then spin the world into a “Hothouse Earth” state of uncontrollable climate change.
Long term, the Hothouse Earth climate will stabilise at a global average of 4C-5C above pre-industrial levels, the study shows.
If that happened, swathes of the planet around the equator will become uninhabitable, with sea levels up to 60 metres (197ft) higher than they are today threatening coastal cities. A Hothouse Earth would pose “severe risks for health, economies, political stability, and ultimately, the habitability of the planet for humans”, the international scientists wrote in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The research highlighted 10 feedback processes that were predicted to kick in at around 2C of global warming.
The “tipping elements” could turn natural carbon storage systems or “sinks” into powerful greenhouse gas emitters.
Professor Johan Rockstrom, a leading member of the team from the University of Stockholm, Sweden, 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
A MAN who went to fight for a terror group in Syria sent messages back to friends in Sheffield saying: “I came here to sacrifice myself for Allah’s religion,” a court has heard.
Ahmed Hadrami and Mohammed Kaabar, both 22, left the UK in March 2016 “in order to become involved in fighting to overthrow the Syrian government”, prosecutors at Sheffield Crown Court said.
Michelle Nelson, prosecuting, said messages from these two men did not say which group they were with, except that it was not Islamic State.
Kaabar sent messages saying he had gone to “live amongst the Muslims and support and defend them with everything we have”.
Ms Nelson was opening the case for the prosecution in the trial of dental student Abdulrahman Kaabar – Mohammed Kaabar’s brother – who is charged with two counts of entering into a funding arrangement for the purpose of terrorism.
She told the court the defendant – a student in his first year of a dentistry degree at Plymouth University – has admitted three counts of possession of terrorist material and 12 counts of disseminating a terrorist publication.
She said he had contact with another dentistry student, Mohammed Awan, from Huddersfield, who was convicted last year of preparing for terrorist acts.
Kaabar, 23, of Martin Street, Sheffield, denies funding terrorism. The case continues.