Earth has reached climate ‘tipping point’, says report

The Earth has reached its first climate tipping point, signalling a bleak new reality for the planet that scientists had once believed was still far away.

- JULIA MUSTO STUTI MISHRA

In a damning new report released yesterday, 160 international researchers warned that as a result of boiling ocean temperatures, warm-water coral reefs such as Australia’s Great Barrier Reef have passed a point of no return - and the majority are now expected to decline.

The latest Global Tipping Points Report, led by the University of Exeter and released ahead of this year’s Cop30 climate summit in Brazil, says that coral ecosystems - on which about a billion people depend for food and livelihood - are now tipping into an irreversible decline. This means the Earth has entered a “new reality”.

Close to a billion people and a quarter of all marine life depend on those animals, which are part of some of the most diverse ecosystems in the world and protect coastlines from major storms.

They are also colourful attractions for snorkelers and divers. But the reefs have already experienced unprecedented stress and many could be lost for good unless global warming is reversed, report author Dr Mike Barrett, chief scientific advisor at WWF UK, said in a release.

“This grim situation must be a wake-up call that unless we act decisively now, we will also lose the Amazon rainforest, the ice sheets and vital ocean currents,” he explained. “In that scenario, we would be looking at a truly catastrophic outcome for all humanity.”

Dr Barrett said the Earth is nearing other tipping points that could be reached in the coming years — and be devastating for Earth’s climate.