Feedback loops worsening climate crisis:Scientists

Scientists have identified 27 global warming accelerators known as amplifying feedback loops, including some that the researchers said may not be fully accounted for in climate models. Scientists said that the findings added urgency to the need to respond to the climate crisis. In climate science, amplifying feedback loops are situations where a climate-caused alteration can trigger a process that causes even more warming, which in turn intensifies the alteration. An example would be warming in the Arctic, leading to melting sea ice, which results in further warming because sea water absorbs rather than reflects solar radiation.

The international collaboration, led by Oregon State University (OSU), US, researchers, also provided a roadmap for policymakers aiming to avert the most severe consequences of a warming planet, they said. The findings have been reported in the journal One Earth. The study in all looked at 41 climate change feedbacks. “Many of the feedback loops we examined significantly increase warming because of their connection to greenhouse gas emissions,” OSU College of Forestry postdoctoral scholar and one of the lead researchers Christopher Wolf said. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the most extensive list available of climate feedback loops, and not all of them are fully considered in climate models. What’s urgently needed is more research and modeling and an accelerated cutback of emissions,” said Wolf.

“The accuracy of climate models is crucial as they help guide mitigation efforts by telling policymakers about the expected effects of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. “While recent climate models do a much better job of incorporating diverse feedback loops, more progress is needed,” said Wolf. The study considered both biological and physical feedbacks. Emissions have risen substantially over the last century, the researchers noted, despite several decades of warnings that they should be significantly curbed.In addition to the 27 amplifying climate feedbacks the scientists studied were seven that are characterized as dampening – they act to stabilize the climate system, the study said. An example is carbon dioxide fertilization, where rising concentrations of atmospheric CO2 lead to increasing carbon uptake by vegetation, the study said. The effects of the remaining seven feedbacks, including increased atmospheric dust and reduced ocean stability, are not yet known, the study said.