The six most likely to be crossed soonest:
- Greenland Ice Sheet collapse
- West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapse
- Collapse of ocean circulation in the polar region of the North Atlantic
- Coral reef die off in the low latitudes
- Sudden thawing of permafrost in the Northern regions
- Abrupt sea ice loss in the Barents Sea
One list of tipping points:
Amazon rainforest: frequent droughts
Arctic sea ice: reduction in area
Atlantic Meridional Overturning circulation: in slowdown since 1950’s
Boreal forest: fires and pests changing
Coral reefs: large-scale die-offs
Greenland ice sheet: ice loss accelerating
Permafrost: thawing
West Antarctica ice sheet: ice loss accelerating
East Antarctica ice sheet: ice loss accelerating
Mountain glaciers: melting
Barents sea ice: possible abrupt loss
The scariest thing is that these can interact with each other in a way that increases the likelihood of disaster, and too frequently scientists find that it’s getting worse faster than they thought it would.
www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/12/climate-tipping-points-earth/
www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-62838627
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn7950