Deforestation in the Amazon is approaching the point of no return, and the collapse of this ecosystem could turn it from a huge carbon sink into a gushing carbon tap. I suspect you are exhaling more carbon than you do.
If the Amazon crosses a tipping point of self-resilience, new research shows that disasters could set off a domino effect that could also strike a tipping point elsewhere in the world, sharply accelerating the environmental crisis and causing irreparable damage to the planet. This suggests that it is possible to give
Turning points in the global climate system, such as ice sheet collapse, glacier melting, forest decline, sea level rise, and monsoon changes, have received more attention in recent years.
Each one of these switches could cause our planet’s heat to rise severely, creating a “greenhouse Earth” with irreversible and catastrophic effects.
They are all linked by the global greenhouse effect, but in the climate crisis it is unclear in what order they will eventually collapse.
The latest research focuses on the tipping point of the Amazon rainforest and some of its connections with other regions’ climate systems.
An international team of climate researchers used historical data from 1979 to 2019 to uncover links between deforestation in the Amazon and warming of the Tibet and West Antarctic ice sheets.
Fitting the data to models of the global climate system suggested that this relationship is closely synchronized with modern climate change.
High rainfall periods in the Amazon correlated with low rainfall periods in Tibet and West Antarctica.
Since 2008, the Tibetan Plateau snowpack has melted at a rapid rate similar to that of the Arctic.
Plateaus, sometimes known as the Earth’s third pole, play an important role in global water storage and climate.
If current research is correct, the decline in Tibet’s snow cover could be partly due to deforestation halfway across the globe. The authors say the region is currently approaching an often overlooked tipping point.
“Our framework highlights the ability to relate elements of a chip and the potential predictability of cascading chip dynamics,” the authors write.
The connection between Antarctica, Tibet, and the Amazon stretches nearly 10,000 kilometers (6,200 miles) and appears to be based on strong ocean currents and westerly winds.
In a paper review NatureValerie Livina, a climate scientist at the UK’s National Physical Laboratory, agrees that the model shows “strong correlations over long distances”.
“This is the first time that the theory of complex networks has been applied in the context of tipping points, and the synergy of the two research areas provides important insights into global climate dynamics,” Livina wrote. increase.
“This study opens up a new area of tipping point analysis on a global scale.”
Nevertheless, there are still many complexities that need to be incorporated into future models.
Deforestation in the Amazon affects more than just Tibet and Antarctica. Previous studies have shown that the Amazon climate, which is closely regulated by trees, could affect coral reefs in the Caribbean, reduce snowfall in the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountains of North America, and cause extreme drought on the West Coast. It has been suggested that there is
The Earth’s climate system is closely connected. It’s a small world after all.
This research nature climate change.
