Study says runaway climate change ‘possible in decades’

whole row of dominoes from tumbling over. Places on Earth will become uninhabitable if Hothouse Earth becomes the reality.”

The tipping point dangers were identified as thawing permafrost, the release of methane trapped on the ocean floor, weakening land and ocean carbon sinks, increased carbon dioxide production by ocean bacteria, Amazon rainforest die-back, coniferous forest die-back, reduced northern hemisphere snow cover, loss of Arctic summer sea ice, reduced Antarctic sea ice and melting polar ice sheets.

The scientists wrote: “Our analysis suggests that the Earth system may be approaching a planetary threshold that could lock in a continuing rapid pathway toward much hotter conditions – Hothouse Earth.

This pathway would be propelled by strong, intrinsic, biogeophysical feedbacks difficult to influence by human actions, a pathway that could not be reversed, steered or substantially slowed. Where such a threshold might be is uncertain, but it could be only decades ahead at a temperature rise of (around) 2C above pre-industrial.”

Avoiding a Hothouse Earth outcome would require “deep cuts” in greenhouse gas emissions as well as concerted efforts to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, both by preserving natural carbon sinks and using technology, the researchers claimed.