‘Act fast’ call to rescue climate

ACTING quickly to curb global warming could help avert the devastating consequences of climate change and avoid going past the point of no return, research has suggested.

It is thought that climate change has several “tipping points” – thresholds for change which, when reached, result in a process that is difficult to reverse.

Consequences would include abrupt changes such as the dieback of the Amazon rainforest or melting of major ice sheets.

However, in a new study published in the journal Nature, UK scientists say these thresholds could be “temporarily exceeded” without causing irreversible damage, provided swift action is taken.

They add the time available to act would depend on the level of global warming and the timescale involved in each tipping point.

Dr Paul Ritchie, of the University of Exeter’s Global Systems Institute and the department of mathematics, said: “The more extreme the warming, the less time we would have to prevent tipping points.

“This is especially true for fast-onset tipping points like Amazon forest dieback and disruption to monsoons, where irreversible change could take place in a matter of decades.”