Humanity faces an “unprecedented” risk from tipping points that could unleash a domino effect of irreversible catastrophes across the planet, researchers warned Wednesday.
The most comprehensive assessment ever conducted of Earth’s invisible tripwires was released as leaders meet for UN climate talks in Dubai with 2023 set to smash all heat records.
While many of the 26 tipping points laid out in the report — such as melting ice sheets — are linked to global warming, other human activities like razing swathes of the Amazon rainforest could also push Earth’s ecosystems to the brink.
Five of these are showing signs of tipping — from melting ice sheets threatening catastrophic sea level rise, to mass die-off of tropical coral reefs — the report warned.
Some may have already begun to irrecoverably transform. Once the world crosses the threshold for just one tipping point, dealing with the immediate humanitarian disaster could distract attention away from stopping the others, creating a “vicious cycle” of mass hunger, displacement and conflict, the report warned.
Tim Lenton, an Earth system scientist at the University of Exeter and lead author of the report, told AFP that these tipping points pose a “threat of a magnitude that is unprecedented for humanity”.
But it was not all bad news. The report also highlighted a range of positive tipping points — such as electric vehicles, renewable energy and changing to plant-based diets — that have the potential to swiftly build momentum and tip things back the other way.
