Domino-effect of climate events could push Earth into a ‘hothouse’ state

A domino-like cascade of melting ice, warming seas, shifting currents and dying forests could tilt the Earth into a “hothouse” state beyond which human efforts to reduce emissions will be increasingly futile, a group of leading climate scientists has warned.

Polar bears on sea ice: the loss of the Greenland ice shee
 could disrupt the Gulf Stream, which would in turn raise sea
levels and accelerate Antarctic ice loss.

This grim prospect is sketched out in a journal paper that considers the combined consequences of 10 climate change processes, including the release of methane trapped in Siberian permafrost and the impact of melting ice in Greenland on the Antarctic.

Read the story from The Guardian by Jonathan Watts - “Domino-effect of climate events could push Earth into a ‘hothouse’ state.”