Global warming is crossing dangerous thresholds before expected with the world’s coral reef now in an almost irreversible boundary that marks what researchers on Monday described as the first “rocking point” in climate -dry ecosystem collapse.
The warning in the global rocker report report from 160 researchers around the world who synthesize pioneering science to estimate points without return, only weeks ahead of this year’s COP30 climate summit held on the outskirts of Amazon’s rainforest in Brazil.
The same rainforest system is now at risk of collapsing when the average global temperature warms beyond only 1.5 degrees Celsius based on deforestation speeds, the report says, and is revised down the estimated threshold for the Amazon.
Also worrying if temperatures continue to rise is the threat of disturbing the largest ocean current called Atlantic Meridional overturning circulation or AMOC, which helps secure mild winters in Northern Europe.
“Change is happening quickly now, tragically, in parts of the climate, the biosphere,” said environmental scientist Tim Lenton at the University of Exeter, the lead author of the report.
Some positive signs
Lenton noticed positive signs when it came to phasing out the fossil fuels that are most responsible for climate change. Renewable energy sources, for example, drew for more electricity generation than coal this year for the first time, according to data from nonprofit think tank Ember.
“No one wants to be just traumatized and not the strength,” Lenton said. “We still have some agency.”
Researchers asked countries on November’s COP30 to work to reduce climate -heating carbon emissions.
Researchers have been surprised at how fast changes are unfolded in nature, with average global temperatures already heated by 1.3-1.4 degrees Celsius (2.3 to 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit) over the pre-industrial average, according to UN data and EU scientific agencies.
Warmest on the record
Over the past two years, the hottest of the earth was on the record, with marine heat waves, emphasizing 84% of the world’s reef to the point where he bleached and in some cases dead. Coral reef maintains about a quarter of marine life.
For corals to recover, the world would have to drastically increase climate action to return temperatures to only 1 degree C above the pre -industrial average, the researchers suggested.
“The new report makes it clear that every year there is an increase in the scope and size of the negative effects of climate change,” said Pep Canadell, senior scientist at Australia’s CSIRO Climate Science Center.
The world is currently on track for approx. 3.1 degrees C heating in this century, based on national policies.
