Destabilization of Ice Sheets a Primary Initiator of Climate Domino Effects

Earth System Dynamics, June 3

The Greenland Ice Sheet, West Antarctic Ice Sheet, Amazon rainforest, and the largest ocean circulation systems can undergo large and potentially irreversible changes once human-caused or natural factors cause certain critical temperatures to be exceeded. These so-called tipping points risk affecting the stability of the entire climate system, and that risk increases significantly when interactions between these tipping elements are included. Such interactions have an overall destabilizing effect, effectively pushing the critical threshold temperature to lower warming levels, possibly within the temperature limits of the Paris Agreement. The polar ice sheets, which are already close to their tipping point at warming levels between 1.5°C and 2°C, appear to be the main initiators of cascading impacts on our climate.

https://esd.copernicus.org/articles/12/601/2021/