Run-Away Climate Change

Run-away climate change refers to climate change Climate ChangeThe most commonly used term to refer to the changes in the climate regionally and globally. It is recommended to…Read on اقرأ المزيد that “feeds on itself” through amplifying feedback where the impacts of heating cause further heating. The easiest way to visualize it is to imagine a line of domino pieces – when the first one tips over, it leads to the next one falling and so on. Once started, it is very hard to stop.

Unless averted, run-away climate change could be a large threat to human survival. It may – over the course of several centuries –lead planet Earth to a state that is known as “hot house Earth”, with average global temperatures 8°C above pre-industrial values, no ice on the poles, and sea levels 60 meters higher than today’s.

Averting run-away climate change

Run-away climate change is already possible under current levels of global warming. However, beyond certain tipping points, namely the 1.5-2°C global heating Global HeatingThe increase in average global temperatures, which has been primarily driven by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions since the start of…Read on اقرأ المزيد range of the Paris Agreement Paris AgreementAn agreement reached at COP21 in Paris in 2015 with a set of targets, most notably keeping global heating at 1.5…Read on اقرأ المزيد , it will become likely.

To stabilize global temperatures below those tipping points, the atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentration must be kept at or below 350 parts per million (ppm). The planet is currently over 420 ppm and going up, which means that current mitigation MitigationThe efforts to reduce or eliminate greenhouse gas emissions. Mitigation measures include reducing emissions on the demand side through energy-efficiency…Read on اقرأ المزيد approaches are not working.

Some false solutions False SolutionsMeasures, often of technical nature, that have been proposed to deal with the climate crisis, often by fossil fuel corporations…Read on اقرأ المزيد have been proposed to stop run-away climate change, such as pumping aerosols into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight or adopting carbon capture and storage (CCS) Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)CCS was first commercialized in the 1970s, but it was called “enhanced oil recovery” because oil corporations pumped the captured…Read on اقرأ المزيد on a large scale. However, these are distractions from real solutions that break fossil fuel Fossil FuelRefers to energy materials extracted from the earth and used for burning. The three main fossil fuels are oil, fossil…Read on اقرأ المزيد dependency.

Elements of the climate system contributing to run-away climate change

Multiple elements of the Earth’s climate system are increasingly influenced by self-reinforcing processes that will continue to feed into each other until they spiral out of control and cause run-away climate change. These elements, which are described as “climate dominoes”, include:

• The melting of sea-ice on the North Pole in summer, which due to a so-called “albedo flip” leads to more heating, because where ice reflected most of the sunlight, water absorbs most of its heat.
• The destruction of the Amazon rainforest. The “lungs of the planet” might witness a large-scale dieback and degradation by 2100, releasing large amounts of CO2.
• Release of methane clathrates. According to the clathrate gun hypothesis, accumulated methane Methane EmissionsMethane (CH4) is the main component of fossil gas, making up 96% of its composition. It is also emitted from…Read on اقرأ المزيد could be released into the atmosphere when ocean temperatures rise, rapidly warming the planet and possibly causing mass extinction. This is considered the biggest and most dangerous climate domino.