From xxxxxx <[email protected]>
Subject Critical Measures of Global Heating Reach Tipping Point, Study Finds
Date July 29, 2021 7:05 AM
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[“Policies to alleviate the climate crisis or any of the other
threatened planetary boundary transgressions should not be focused on
symptom relief but on addressing their root cause: the
overexploitation of the Earth,”] [[link removed]]

CRITICAL MEASURES OF GLOBAL HEATING REACH TIPPING POINT, STUDY FINDS
 
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Katharine Gammon
July 27, 2021
The Guardian
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_ “Policies to alleviate the climate crisis or any of the other
threatened planetary boundary transgressions should not be focused on
symptom relief but on addressing their root cause: the
overexploitation of the Earth,” _

Vast areas of the Amazon rainforest are being burned and cleared for
grazing cattle — a double blow to global warming, as cattle produce
methane and cleared forests release carbon into the atmosphere.,
Photograph: Florian Kopp/imageBROKER/REX/Shutterstock

 

A new study tracking the planet’s vital signs has found that many of
the key indicators of the global climate crisis are getting worse and
either approaching, or exceeding, key tipping points as the earth
heats up.

Overall, the study found some 16 out of 31 tracked planetary vital
signs, including greenhouse gas concentrations, ocean heat content and
ice mass, set worrying new records.

“There is growing evidence we are getting close to or have already
gone beyond tipping points associated with important parts of the
Earth system,” said William Ripple, an ecologist at Oregon State
University who co-authored the new research, in a statement.

“The updated planetary vital signs we present largely reflect the
consequences of unrelenting business as usual,” said Ripple, adding
that “a major lesson from Covid-19 is that even colossally decreased
transportation and consumption are not nearly enough and that,
instead, transformational system changes are required.”

While the pandemic shut down economies and shifted the way people
think about work, school and travel, it did little to reduce the
overall global carbon emissions. Fossil fuel use dipped slightly in
2020, but the authors of a report published in the
journal _BioScience _say that carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous
oxide “have all set new year-to-date records for atmospheric
concentrations in both 2020 and 2021”.

In April 2021, carbon dioxide concentration reached 416 parts per
million, the highest monthly global average concentration ever
recorded. The five hottest years on record have all occurred since
2015, and 2020 was the second hottest year in history.

The study also found that ruminant livestock, a significant source of
planet-warming gases, now number more than 4 billion, and their total
mass is more than that of all humans and wild animals combined. The
rate of forest loss in the Brazilian Amazon increased in both 2019 and
2020, reaching a 12-year high of 1.11 million hectares deforested in
2020.

Ocean acidification is near an all-time record, and when combined with
warmer ocean temperatures, it threatens the coral reefs that more than
half a billion people depend on for food, tourism dollars and storm
surge protection.

However, there were a few bright spots in the study, including fossil
fuel subsidies reaching a record low and fossil fuel divestment
reaching a record high.

In order to change the course of the climate emergency, the authors
write that profound alterations need to happen. They say the world
needs to develop a global price for carbon that is linked to a
socially just fund to finance climate mitigation and adaptation
policies in the developing world.

The authors also highlight the need for a phase-out and eventual ban
of fossil fuels, and the development of global strategic climate
reserves to protect and restore natural carbon sinks and biodiversity.
Climate education should also be part of school curricula around the
globe, they say.

“Policies to alleviate the climate crisis or any of the other
threatened planetary boundary transgressions should not be focused on
symptom relief but on addressing their root cause: the
overexploitation of the Earth,” the report says. Only by taking on
this core issue, the authors write, will people be able to “ensure
the long-term sustainability of human civilization and give future
generations the opportunity to thrive”.

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