runaway climate chaos
Melting ice:
The rapid loss of Arctic sea ice is not just a symptom of climate change, but also a driver. It is diminishing the albedo effect, which is the capacity of the snow and ice to reflect heat. "It's a runaway feedback process," says Siegert. "As the ice starts to retreat, the white reflective surface is replaced by a dark heat-absorbing surface, which leads to further loss of sea ice."
There is now less sea ice surrounding Antarctica than at any time since satellites started measuring it in the late 1970s. BBC The State of the Climate 2023
"Climate change is not simply a matter of cause and effect. It's more like a vicious circle." Source: Yale Climate Connections
Feedback loops: The accelerating effects of positive feedback loops can be at risk to irreversible tipping points which are changes to the climate that are not steady and predictable. Basically tipping points are small changes within the climate system that can change a fairly stable system to a very different state.
There is a threat of so called abrupt climate change – when changes happen very quickly and become essentially irreversible due to runaway effects. Whilst not a certainty, the concern is that Earth is heading rapidly into a hothouse state, even if temperatures are kept below 2C which seems unlikely. Source: USA National Academy of Sciences 2018 Report
"50 years ago, this would be dismissed as alarmist, but now scientists have become really worried.” Source: Stockholm Resilience Centre