Scientists Warn Planet Has Passed "Tipping Point" as Warm-Water Coral Reefs Die

"Global temperature rise may feel like it's gradual, but the changes it brings can turn out to be sudden, massive, and self-reinforcing. These changes are what scientists call tipping points. When a tipping point is reached, an Earth system abruptly and dramatically changes, often irreversibly, like the Amazon rainforest turning into a savanna - a point of no return that is already perilously close."

"But today, a group of 160 scientists from 23 countries is announcing that the planet has already reached its first major tipping point: the widespread death of warm-water coral reefs. That's due primarily to rapidly rising marine temperatures - the seas have absorbed 90 percent of the excess heat we've created - but also the acidification that comes from more atmospheric CO2 interacting with water. (This interferes with corals' ability to build the protective skeletons that form the complex structure of a reef.)"

Global temperature rise can produce sudden, massive, self-reinforcing changes known as tipping points. The planet has already reached its first major tipping point: the widespread death of warm-water coral reefs. Rapidly rising marine temperatures and ocean acidification undermine coral survival and skeleton formation. The oceans have absorbed about 90 percent of excess heat from human emissions, and ocean surface warming has quadrupled since the late 1980s. In the past fifty years, half of the world's live coral cover has disappeared. Coral bleaching, seagrass degradation, and reef loss threaten ecological balance and coastal livelihoods.

Read at Truthout