Climate feedback loops

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We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 1967, "Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence"[1]


The American Meteorological Society defines a feedback as a sequence of interactions determining the response of the system to an initial change. In the climate system, a feedback is a process that can work as part of a loop to either lessen or add to the effects of a change in one part of the system. When a process helps keep components of the system in balance, it sets up a negative, or balancing, feedback loop. When a change in one part of the system causes changes in the same direction in other parts of the Earth system, a positive, or reinforcing, feedback loop occurs.[2]

Directory

Albedo Effect | Soil Carbon Feedback | Functional complexity | Carbon Stocks | Carbon cycle

Time Crunch

Tipping Points

Tipping points occur when a positive feedback loop crosses a threshold that leads to large changes, that often can't be turned around or reversed. Essentially, the positive feedback loop becomes so strong, or the changes begin happening so quickly, that the impacts are like a snowball accumulating mass and rolling so quickly downhill that it can’t be stopped.[3]

"Ecological collapse is likely to start sooner than previously believed, according to a new study that models how tipping points can amplify and accelerate one another. Based on these findings, the authors warn that more than a fifth of ecosystems worldwide, including the Amazon rainforest, are at risk of a catastrophic breakdown within a human lifetime... Ecological collapse is likely to start sooner than previously believed, according to a new study that models how tipping points can amplify and accelerate one another. Based on these findings, the authors warn that more than a fifth of ecosystems worldwide, including the Amazon rainforest, are at risk of a catastrophic breakdown within a human lifetime."[4]

Acceleration

Summer 2023

"New precedents have been set in recent weeks and months, surprising some scientists with their swift evolution: historically warm oceans, with North Atlantic temperatures already nearing their typical annual peak; unparalleled low sea ice levels around Antarctica, where global warming impacts had, until now, been slower to appear; and the planet experiencing its warmest June ever charted, according to new data. And then, on Monday, came Earth’s hottest day in at least 125,000 years. Tuesday was hotter... It’s not just that records are being broken — but the massive margins with which conditions are surpassing previous extremes, scientists note."[5]

"The sharp increase in north Atlantic surface temperatures over the past three months raises the question of whether the world’s climate has entered a more erratic and dangerous phase with the onset of an El Niño event on top of human-made global heating."[6]

Sources

  1. ↑ https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm
  2. ↑ https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/earth-system/climate-system/feedback-loops-tipping-points
  3. ↑ https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/earth-system/climate-system/feedback-loops-tipping-points
  4. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/22/ecological-tipping-points-could-occur-much-sooner-than-expected-study-finds
  5. ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/07/06/earth-record-heat-climate-extremes/
  6. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jul/03/a-perfect-storm-scientists-ponder-if-climate-has-entered-a-new-erratic-era?CMP=share_btn_tw
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