(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Climate tipping points ignited an abrupt and extreme global heating chain reaction. [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-10 Never before has there been such a strong indication of the amplifying effects of tipping points during these heat spikes, which are considered to represent the best analogues of modern climate change in Earth's history. Margot Cramwinckel, Utrecht University The Eocene epoch took place over 56 million years ago, lasted 22 million years, and was similar to our current climate system. It was during that time that large mammals first appeared on Earth. It was also the time when climate tipping points caused extreme planet heating three times, according to new research. Netherlands climate researchers and mathematicians at Wageningen University & Research and Utrecht University have used the chemical composition of the shells of fossilized single-cell organisms to discover what climate and the carbon system looked like during the Eocene. They found that climate tipping points triggered three intense warming periods. The Earth's carbon in the form of coal, gas, peat, and oil is stored underground. The vast reservoirs are stored in the frozen soils of the northernmost swathes of tundra in Canada, Russia, and Alaska. In the planet's oceans, methane is stored in a frozen state called methane hydrates. If these carbon sources stay underground, they do not threaten us. The permafrost is thawing and releasing gases today. Frozen soil may have already tipped and is one of 15 active tipping points. If even a small fraction of Arctic sea floor carbon is released to the atmosphere, we're f'd. Dr.Jason Box From The Netherlands Earth System Science Centre: However, as temperatures on Earth keep rising, many climate scientists have cautioned these reservoirs could become unstable and lead to a tipping point: an abrupt release of huge amounts of greenhouse gases. Such a catastrophic release would, in turn, strongly increase climate change. The existence of tipping points hidden in our climate system has been debated for many years. It also has been argued that the climate system itself is sturdy and will prevent climate tipping points from being crossed. The new research now shows for the first time that rapid global warming phases in the geological past, between 56 and 52 million years ago, were indeed caused by climate tipping points. It was already known that large amounts of CO 2 and methane were released into the atmosphere during these phases, amplifying warming. This, in turn, destabilized other carbon reservoirs, triggering the release of more carbon. Global temperatures spiked even further – and this allowed the chain reaction to continue. snip “After crossing a tipping point, a new stable situation arises that is irreversible for a long time. From the perspective of a human life span, these changes can be described as permanent,” says Setty. “This type of irreversibility is observable in smaller systems on scales we can understand. For example, in Darvaza in Turkmenistan, a crater was formed releasing a steady stream of toxic gases. This was a new stable state which we could not reverse. Despite countless efforts, the crater still exists and continues to burn unabated. Perhaps the climate system today is very tough, and we never reach tipping points. However, we do not fully know the immensity of the risk. In the study, we present evidence for rapid climate change events induced by such tipping points in the distant past and this indicates that tipping points are part of Earth’s system.” x In 1971, Soviet geologists working in Turkmenistan set a crater on fire to prevent the spread of methane gas, expecting it would burn for a few days. The hole has since been burning for over 51 years and is know as The Door to Hell: https://t.co/IT6uEkpBY5pic.twitter.com/r576hAIuz9 — Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) April 1, 2023 NOAA writes an update on 2022's greenhouse gas emissions, that is increasing rapidly. Levels of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), methane and nitrous oxide, the three greenhouse gases emitted by human activity that are the most significant contributors to climate change, continued their historically high rates of growth in the atmosphere during 2022, according to NOAA scientists. The global surface average for CO 2 rose by 2.13 parts per million (ppm) to 417.06 ppm, roughly the same rate observed during the last decade. Atmospheric CO 2 is now 50% higher than pre-industrial levels. 2022 was the 11th consecutive year CO 2 increased by more than 2 ppm, the highest sustained rate of CO 2 increases in the 65 years since monitoring began. Prior to 2013, three consecutive years of CO 2 growth of 2 ppm or more had never been recorded. Atmospheric methane, which is far less abundant but much more potent than CO 2 at trapping heat in the atmosphere, increased to an average of 1,911.9 parts per billion (ppb). The 2022 methane increase was 14.0 ppb, the fourth-largest annual increase recorded since NOAA’s systematic measurements began in 1983, and follows record growth in 2020 and 2021. Methane levels in the atmosphere are now more than two and a half times their pre-industrial level. In 2022, levels of the third-most significant anthropogenic greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide, rose by 1.24 ppb to 335.7 ppb, which is tied with 2014 as the third-largest jump since 2000 and a 24% increase over its pre-industrial level of 270 ppb. The two years of highest growth occurred in 2020 and 2021. Increases in atmospheric nitrous oxide during recent decades are mainly from use of nitrogen fertilizer and manure from the expansion and intensification of agriculture. Climate scientists said preliminary data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) showed the average temperature at the ocean’s surface has been at 21.1C since the start of April – beating the previous high of 21C set in 2016. “The current trajectory looks like it’s headed off the charts, smashing previous records,” said Prof Matthew England, a climate scientist at the University of New South WaleS It's worse than we are being told. Where is the media? Climate change has been made political. 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