Issue Climate tipping points arriving sooner than expected

Summary

Citing new research by the Dutch meteorological institute and others, the report holds that several climate tipping points could arrive sooner than expected. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation could reach a tipping point before 2100 and then stall, bringing drier summers and extreme winter cold to north-western Europe and hitting European harvests hard. Melting of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the Thwaites glacier would raise global sea levels substantially, and the Greenland ice sheet has passed the point where ice is lost faster than snow accumulates, setting it on an irreversible melt. Drought, logging and fire could turn the Amazon rainforest into savannah, and thawing permafrost would release large amounts of carbon dioxide and methane that speed up warming. Shifts in the Indian and West African monsoons would disrupt agriculture, food security and water supply in densely populated regions.