A month before crunch climate talks in the United Arab Emirates, a UN report published on Wednesday warns about irreversible impacts to the planet without drastic changes to connected social and physical systems. The report identifies “risk tipping points,” which are defined as “the moment at which a given socioecological system is no longer able to buffer risks and provide its expected function” after which the risk of catastrophe increases significantly. The Interconnected Disaster Risks Report focuses on six areas that connect the physical and natural world with human society: accelerating extinctions, groundwater depletion, mountain glacial melt, space debris, unbearable heat, and an “uninsurable” future.
Accelerating extinctions
The report highlights the cascading effects of extinctions throughout food chains. The gopher tortoise, which is threatened with extinction, digs burrows that are used by more than 350 other species for breeding, feeding, protection from predators, and avoiding extreme temperatures. If the gopher tortoise goes extinct, the gopher frog that helps control insect populations will likely follow, triggering effects throughout the entire forest ecosystem of the southeastern United States.
Groundwater depletion
Underground water reservoirs represent an essential freshwater resource around the world and today mitigate half of the losses of agriculture caused by droughts, which are being exacerbated by climate change. But aquifers themselves are now depleting faster than they can be naturally replenished. Saudi Arabia has already crossed the groundwater risk tipping point while India isn’t far behind.
Mountain glacial melt
Mountain glaciers that store vast amounts of freshwater are melting twice as fast as they did in the past two decades. “Peak water” — the point when a glacier produces its maximum amount of water runoff due to melting — has been reached or is expected to be reached within the next ten years across small glaciers in Central Europe, Western Canada, and South America. The 90,000+ glaciers of the Himalayas, Karakoram, and Hindu Kush mountains are at risk, and so are the nearly 870 million people that rely on them.
Space debris
The report warns Earth’s orbit is in danger of becoming so full of debris that a collision triggers a chain reaction that threatens humanity’s ability to operate satellites — including those that provide vital early warning monitoring against disasters.
Unbearable heat and an “uninsurable” future
As temperatures rise, cities are becoming unbearable places to live, and the report warns that many global cities will become uninhabitable by the end of the century. The cost of climate change is already threatening the insurance industry, with some experts warning that the industry could collapse if it doesn’t adapt to the changing climate.
Solutions
The report finds most solutions currently being implemented focus on delaying problems rather than genuinely addressing the root causes. “We need to understand the difference between adapting to risk tipping points and avoiding them, and between actions that delay looming risks and those that move us towards transformation,” it said.
SOURCE: Ref Image from Al Arabiya
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