Deforestation in South America Increases Ice Loss in Tibetan Plateau and West Antarctica

Nature Climate Change, 5 January 2023

Rising temperatures can push parts of the climate system across “thresholds” that trigger abrupt or irreversible changes in other regions of the world, even tens of thousands of kilometers apart. In this study, an international team of climate researchers investigate the long-range impacts of deforestation of the Amazon rainforest on other regions. As logging, road construction and warming increase, this South American ecosystem edges closer to a threshold at which point the rainforest cannot be sustained, drastically altering moisture and weather patterns. Authors consolidate fifty years of climate data to reveal that if the Amazon crosses this threshold, it could permanently increase temperatures and decrease snowfall in both the Tibetan Plateau and West Antarctica by altering global atmospheric circulation patterns. The Tibetan Plateau provides frozen freshwater resources for millions of downstream communities. Over the past few decades, rising temperatures have been accelerating glacier retreat across the region. These findings confirm that crossing one threshold could trigger a cascade of others, even reaching the opposite side of the world. Reducing emissions is the most effective way to minimize present and future disaster phenomena such as floods, droughts and sea level rise on a global scale.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01558-4