Let's go from the very cold (Greenland) to the very warm (coral reefs) and learn more about climate tipping points from Planet Snapshots...
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There’s only one thing more frightening than an ocean filled with large predators, and it’s an ocean filled with nothing living at all. Unfortunately, warmer temperatures are bleaching Earth’s corals into white tombstones and turning reefs into biological graveyards at an alarming rate.

About 90% of all atmospheric warming has been absorbed by Earth’s oceans, creating a multitude of problems including the destruction of its beloved biodiversity hotspots: coral reefs. 

A warmer ocean significantly disrupts coral food webs that 25% of the planet’s marine species and about one billion humans rely on. Scientists further fear that its collapse won’t be slow and gradual but rather sudden and catastrophic. 

That coral reef tipping point is both unnervingly close and frustratingly uncertain. The reefs that color Earth’s oceans and support tremendous biodiversity are rapidly dying. But the die-off is also uneven. 

Some corals are more resilient to changes in marine chemistry than others. So while the prevailing science places a likely major collapse of low-latitude coral reefs between 1.5 to 2°C of warming, we’re still unsure where the tip into the deep end is exactly.

Reports from the IPCC indicate that a global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels would likely result in a decline of 70 to 90% of coral reefs. At 2°C that percentage reaches 99%. And recent studies point to crossing that warming threshold by mid-century. Which means that for this tipping point, our metaphorical toes are gripping the edge.

To say a mass die-off of coral reefs would be catastrophic for biodiversity and food webs would be an understatement. And it’s going to take more than curbing emissions to prevent the worst of its effects. 
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LEANR MORE -- https://medium.com/@planetsnapshots/issue-91-tipping-points-coral-reefs-744e82e91edd

#Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateEmergency #Biodiversity

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