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Study shows how Earth is turning into a hothouse with sea levels rising above 60m

Hothouse Earth could be a reality, scientists warn. One that would devastate the human race if we are not cautious.

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Earth is expected to pass a crucial point, called the tipping point, if greenhouse gases continue to rise, forests are destroyed and polar ice continues to melt.

Scientists in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences state that the consequences to crossing that threshold would cause a hike of 4-5º Celsius more than pre-industrial times, with sea levels higher by 10 to 60 meters than current levels. This could all happen in a few decades.

How realistic is ‘Hothouse Earth’?

In an article by scientists at the University of Copenhagen, Australian National University and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, the term ‘Hothouse Earth’ was used.

“Hothouse Earth is likely to be uncontrollable and dangerous to many,” stated the article.

By the end of the century or maybe even earlier, storms would cause devastation on coastal communities, rivers would overflow, and coral reefs would be eliminated.

Global average temperatures would surpass that of any interglacial period (the warmer eras between Ice Ages) of the last 1.2 million years.

Sea levels would rise considerably due to melted polar ice caps. This would cause flooding in the coastal land where hundreds of millions of people live.

The executive director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre and Co-author of the article, Johan Rockstrom, remarked:

“Places on Earth will become uninhabitable if ‘Hothouse Earth’ becomes the reality.”

According to researchers, the tipping point is around 2° Celsius more than pre-industrial times.

The truth is Earth is warmer now than in pre-industrial times

Earth is warming at a rate of about 0.17°C, every decade, and is already warmer by 1°C compared to pre-industrial times.

“A 2ºC warming could activate important tipping elements, raising the temperature further to activate other tipping elements in a domino-like cascade that could take the Earth System to even higher temperatures,” claimed the report.

Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and fellow co-author, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, said the successive events “may tip the entire earth system into a new mode of operation.”

Phenomena such as wildfires are equally worrisome to experts. As the planet heats up and becomes drier, wildfires will be more prevalent and it would cause an acceleration of carbon dioxide buildup and global warming.

The scientist who compiled the ‘Perspective’ article based their conclusions on previously examined conditions the Earth has experienced and previously published studies on tipping points for our planet.

Scientists plea with humans to change disastrous habits

In the time of the dinosaurs, about 100 million years ago during the Cretaceous period, where volcanic activity was more frequent, carbon dioxide levels were around 1000 ppm. Currently, Earth is at 400 ppm.

Martin Siegert, co-director of the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London and who had no involvement in the study, stated that

“It’s rather selective, but not outlandish.” He added that putting 2ºC as the no-return threshold “is new” and the authors “collated previously published ideas and theories to present a narrative on how the threshold change would work”.

Experts strongly suggest humans change their lifestyles in order to preserve the planet.

Fossil fuels should be replaced with alternative energy sources with low or zero emission. Planting trees and other carbon capture technologies to help with carbon dioxide would be helpful instead of causing deforestation.

Land and coastal conservation alongside soil management with improved farming practices were also among the suggestions.

However, this won’t guarantee that humans can avoid the path of destruction.

“What we do not know yet is whether the climate system can be safely ‘parked’ near 2ºC above pre-industrial levels, as the Paris Agreement envisages,” shared Schellnhuber.

The current warming trend could set off other Earth system processes, known as feedbacks, causing even more warming. This could result in loss of northern hemisphere snow cover, sea ice, polar ice sheets, permafrost thaw and deforestation.