By Laura Bowen
Candles are a lovely way to add a beautiful, calm ambiance to your home—unless they're toxic and cancer-causing. Sound like an exaggeration? I promise it's not.
10 Toxic Chemicals @EPA Should Reconsider Now https://t.co/5VFHKLOdCj @ewg @Healthy_Child @sierraclub @greenpeaceusa @NRDC @EnvDefenseFund— EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)1469121826.0
Conventionally-made candles are packed with some of the worst chemicals available, to the point that some compare breathing the fumes of a paraffin candle to breathing the exhaust from a diesel engine.
This shouldn't be a surprise. Paraffin is the nasty by-product of gas and oil refineries. It comes out of the ground grayish and oozing, then gets bleached with chemical solvents and mixed with heavy fragrances to prepare it for use in pretty candles.
According to a study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, burned paraffin candles emit many pollutants and carcinogens like benzene and toluene, each of which have been connected to cancer, asthma and birth defects.
On top of that, candle wicks can contain heavy metals like lead. However, according to the National Candle Association (NCA), the likelihood of purchasing a lead-wicked candle in the U.S. is very low. "Lead wicks have been officially banned in the United States since 2003, and before then they were primarily limited to inexpensive imported candles," the organization said.
When you burn a candle properly, according to the NCA, you should only get carbon dioxide and water vapor. You shouldn't have to settle for the indoor air pollution that a paraffin wax candle produces.
And, fortunately, there are numerous candle varieties out there that aren't full of chemicals. In fact, some candles (those made from pure beeswax in particular) actually purify the air by removing pollution and allergens through the emission of negative ions.
One hundred percent pure beeswax candles are also thought to provide relief of allergies, sinus problems and asthma. Intuitively, this makes sense; the cleaner the air, the healthier the people who are breathing it.
Here's what you should be looking for:
- Candles labeled as lead-free.
- Candles that are 100 percent beeswax with cotton wicks. No blends.
- Candles made from 100 percent vegetable-based waxes.
- Essential oil diffusers to dispense scents, rather than candles.
Here's what you should avoid:
- Candles made with paraffin wax in any form.
- Candles that produce black soot around the wick when burned.
- Candles that leave a mark like a pencil when you touch the wick to paper.
- Candles that have a metal core.
Several innovative companies have begun brainstorming better ways to repurpose old wind turbine blades. xu wu / Getty Images
When wind turbine blades reach the end of their usefulness, most are sawed into transportable pieces and hauled to landfills, where they never break down. Because of the resources and energy that go into producing these blades, this type of disposal is inefficient and wasteful. Recently, several innovative companies have begun brainstorming better ways to repurpose this green technology after it goes offline.
<p>According to <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-wind-turbine-blades-could-be-recycled-instead-of-landfilled/" target="_blank">Scientific American</a>, wind turbines are built to last an industry standard of 30 years. As installed <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/wind-power-capacity-2645577863.html" target="_self">wind energy capacity continues to increase globally</a>, it is becoming increasingly important to think about the next phase in a wind turbine's lifecycle: the end. Some existing turbines have already been taken out of service and decommissioned at the end of their lifecycle, or during "repowering," a process where companies replace smaller turbines with bigger ones capable of producing more energy.</p><p>While roughly 85 percent of turbine component materials — including steel, copper wide, electronics and gearing — can be recycled or reused, old blades are harder to salvage, Scientific American reported. Since blades are comprised of fiberglass, a lightweight and durable composite material ideal for withstanding storms, separating the plastic and glass fibers for recycling is difficult, the article found. The process also requires powerful diamond-encrusted industrial saws and a lot of effort. Due to this, tens of thousands of aging blades are being removed and have nowhere to go but landfills, according to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-02-05/wind-turbine-blades-can-t-be-recycled-so-they-re-piling-up-in-landfills" target="_blank">Bloomberg Green</a>.</p><p>The article estimated that 8,000 blades will be decommissioned each year until 2024, and Europe will see about 3,800 coming down each year through at least 2022.</p><p>To combat what <a href="https://grist.org/energy/todays-wind-turbine-blades-could-become-tomorrows-bridges/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Grist</a> called the impending "wind turbine blade waste crisis," scientists around the world are focused on finding ways to recycle, upcycle and redesign blades for the future.</p>
<p>Washington-based Global Fiberglass Solutions (GFS) believes itself to be the first U.S.-based company to commercially recycle fiberglass wind turbine blades, a 2019 <a href="https://resource-recycling.com/plastics/2019/03/27/company-expands-wind-turbine-recycling-operation/" target="_blank">Plastics Recycling Update</a> report noted. According to a GFS <a href="http://blog.global-fiberglass.com/blog/global-fiberglass-solutions-becomes-the-first-us-based-company-to-commercially-recycle-wind-turbine-blades-into-viable-products" target="_blank">press release</a>, the company grinds up discarded blades, which are then used for decking materials, pallets and piping, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/09/10/759376113/unfurling-the-waste-problem-caused-by-wind-energy" target="_blank">NPR</a> reported.</p><p>Wind energy giant G.E. similarly announced a wind turbine blade recycling program in the U.S., where the majority of old blades from onshore turbines would be shredded and used to replace raw materials in cement manufacturing, <a href="https://www.utilitydive.com/news/ge-announces-first-us-wind-turbine-blade-recycling-program-with-veolia/591869/" target="_blank">Utility Dive</a> reported late last year.</p><p>The process should make wind turbines fully recyclable while also reducing carbon dioxide emissions from cement production by a net 27 percent, Utility Dive found. Because concrete is the most widely used human-made material in existence, the production of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/cement" target="_self">cement</a>, one of its composite materials, accounts for approximately eight percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, reported <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46455844#:~:text=Cement%20is%20the%20source%20of,behind%20China%20and%20the%20US." rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">BBC</a> in 2018. Veolia, the company that will process GE's old blades for recycling, hopes to use this co-processing technology to create a greener cement, Bob Cappadona, executive vice president for Veolia North America's environmental solutions and services, told Utility Dive.</p><p>"Last summer we completed a trial using a GE blade, and we were very happy with the results. This fall we have processed more than 100 blades so far, and our customers have been very pleased with the product," said Cappadona.</p>
<p>Upcycling might be a stronger solution for the planet because old blades' strength and durability aren't wasted by shredding them. In Ireland, an experimental blades-to-bridges program run by Re-Wind is reimagining decommissioned blades into bicycle and pedestrian bridges, transmission towers and other civil engineering structures, the <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/james-gignac/wind-turbine-blades-recycling" target="_blank">Union of Concerned Scientists</a> reported. The blade pieces are strong enough to replace steel girders in construction because the technology is built to withstand intense pressure and wind speeds, Grist added.</p><p>Re-Wind is brainstorming other novel uses for the scrap blades, from serving as artificial reefs to highway noise barriers. The company is also considering cutting up the durable material to create affordable housing that can withstand extreme weather, Grist reported.</p><p>"If you are talking about a sustainable, renewable fuel source, it's not appropriate to then pollute the environment with materials that are decommissioned," Re-Wind team lead Larry Bank told Grist.</p><p>A final innovation hopes to add a third option to the recycle-or-discard dilemma surrounding wind turbines. Scientists at National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are changing turbine material in hopes of making them cheaper and recyclable. Last November, Scientific American reported on the new turbine blades, which use a thermoplastic resin instead of epoxy thermoset resin to set the fiberglass into shape. Critically, the new material can be reclaimed at the end of a blade's life by melting and reusing it in new blades.</p><p>While years of additional testing may be required, Daniel Laird, the director of NREL's wind technology center, was hopeful. He told Scientific American, "I think that a lot of progress is going to be made on the recyclability of blades in the next year or two."</p>
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A replica of a titanosaur. AIZAR RALDES / AFP via Getty Images
New fossils uncovered in Argentina may belong to one of the largest animals to have walked on Earth.
<p><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/scientists" target="_self">Scientists</a> attribute the fossils, which so far consist of 24 tail vertebrae and parts of the pelvic and pectoral girdle, to a titanosaur, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/19/americas/dinosaur-largest-titanosaur-intl-scli-scn/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CNN reported</a>. Titanosaurs are a kind of sauropod <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/dinosaurs" target="_self">dinosaur</a> that stood on four legs, had long necks and were large in size.</p><p>"It is a huge dinosaur, but we expect to find much more of the skeleton in future field trips, so we'll have the possibility to address with confidence how really big it was," Alejandro Otero, study corresponding author and a paleontologist with Argentina's Museo de La Plata, told CNN via email.</p>
<p>The research was conducted by the Museo de La Plata, along with the Museo Egidio Feruglio and the universities of Río Negro and Zaragoza. It was published in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S019566712100001X#" target="_blank">Cretaceous Research Jan. 12</a>.</p><p>The research further expands the scientific understanding of sauropods. When their fossils were first uncovered in the nineteenth century, scientists thought that sauropods lived under the water because of their large size, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/biggest-dinosaur-titanosaur-argentina-sauropod-b1788890.html" target="_blank">The Independent explained</a>. However, later research revealed that air sacs and hollow bones helped the creatures to stand on land.</p>
<p>Titanosaurs are the largest of the sauropods. They have been found on every continent except Antarctica, according to CNN, but the largest specimens — weighing more than 40 tons — have largely been discovered in Argentina's Patagonia.</p><p>This includes the Patagotitan, which lived 100 million to 95 million years ago, measured as long as122 feet long and weighed up to 77 tons. (For comparison, an African elephant weighs as much as 9 tons.)</p><p>"Given the size of these bones, which surpass any of the previously known giant animals, the new dinosaur is the largest animal known that walked on Earth," researchers said when the Patagotitan was first announced in 2014, as The Independent reported.</p><p>However, scientists now think the new dinosaur may be even larger.</p><p>"[It] is here considered one of the largest sauropods ever found, probably exceeding <em>Patagotitan</em> in size," they wrote.</p>
<p>The new dinosaur lived 98 million years ago during the Cretaceous period and was found in an area of thick sediment in Patagonia known as the Candeleros Formation, according to CNN.</p><p>Researchers do not believe the specimen is a new species, but they are not yet sure which species it belongs to. Its closest relative so far is the Andesaurus, which could grow to be 18 meters (approximately 59 feet) long, according to The Independent.</p><p>In addition to its size, the new fossil discovery is important for what it can tell scientists about how sauropods interacted.</p><p>"The specimen here reported strongly suggests the co-existence of the largest and middle-sized titanosaurs with small-sized rebbachisaurids at the beginning of the Late Cretaceous in Neuquén Province, indicating putative niche partitioning," the researchers wrote.</p>
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Trump's Affordable Clean Energy rule eliminated a provision mandating that utilities move away from coal. VisionsofAmerica /Joe Sohm / Getty Images
A federal court on Tuesday struck down the Trump administration's rollback of the Obama-era Clean Power Plan regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
<p>Trump's Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule, which was <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/clean-power-plan-trump-epa-2638927020.html" target="_self">finalized</a> by the Environmental Protection Agency (<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/epa" target="_self">EPA)</a> in 2019, moved away from imposing national limits on greenhouse gas emissions, instead allowing states to set their own. It also did away with a provision mandating that utilities move away from <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal" target="_self">coal</a>. The new rule would have reduced electricity emissions by less than half of what would be necessary to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius and, according to the EPA's initial estimate, would have led to between 470 and 1,400 additional <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/air-pollution" target="_self">air pollution</a> deaths a year by 2030.</p><p>"Despite [EPA Administrator] Andrew Wheeler's frequent protests, the EPA's role is to protect the American people from dangerous pollution and act on the greatest threat to our country: the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>," Sierra Club Chief Climate Council Joanne Spalding said in a <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2021/01/court-vacates-dirty-power-plan-bookending-trump-administration-s-wide-ranging" target="_blank">statement</a>. "The Dirty Power Plan didn't do either of these things and the court rightly vacated it."</p><p>At stake in Tuesday's decision was the meaning of the Clean Air Act. The Trump EPA argued that the law only allows the agency to limit pollution from individual sources, not across an entire sector, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-climate-powerplants/us-court-deals-final-blow-to-trump-epas-clean-power-rule-replacement-idUSKBN29O2BO" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Reuters reported</a>. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit disagreed.</p>
<p>"Because the ACE Rule rests squarely on the erroneous legal premise that the statutory text expressly foreclosed consideration of measures other than those that apply at and to the individual source, we conclude that the EPA fundamentally 'has misconceived the law,' such that its conclusion 'may not stand,'" the three-judge panel <a href="http://blogs.edf.org/climate411/files/2021/01/2021.01.19-ACE-Opinion.pdf" target="_blank">ruled</a>.</p><p>Some environmental groups hailed the ruling as a boon to the incoming Biden administration, since they will now have an easier time replacing it, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/01/19/federal-circuit-court-scraps-trump-administration-power-plant-rules/" target="_blank">The Washington Post reported</a>.</p><p>"Today's decision is the perfect Inauguration Day present for America," Environmental Defense Fund Senior Attorney Ben Levitan said in a <a href="https://www.edf.org/media/dc-circuit-strikes-down-trump-administration-repeal-and-replacement-clean-power-plan" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">statement</a>. "It confirms that the Trump administration's dubious attempt to get rid of commonsense limits on climate pollution from power plants was illegal, it reaffirms that the Clean Air Act and the Endangerment Finding are the law of the land, and it restores the vibrancy of the rule of law. Now we can turn to the critically important work of protecting Americans from climate change and creating new clean energy jobs."</p>
<p>However, the Washington Post reported that the Clean Power Plan also ran into legal challenges. When the Trump administration took office, the plan had been put on hold by the Supreme Court while the court battle continued. In a dissent from part of the ruling Tuesday, Judge Justin Walker, a Trump appointee, said the EPA never had the authority to implement the Clean Power Plan either.</p><p>Columbia Law School Professor Michael Gerrard noted that Walker was a former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.</p><p>"[The dissent could be a bad sign for how the Supreme Court might rule if these issues ever go there," he told The Washington Post.</p>
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A wild mink in Utah was the first wild animal in the U.S. found with COVID-19. Peter Trimming via Wikipedia, CC BY-SA
By Jonathan Runstadler and Kaitlin Sawatzki
Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers have found coronavirus infections in pet cats and dogs and in multiple zoo animals, including big cats and gorillas. These infections have even happened when staff were using personal protective equipment.
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<p>More disturbing, in December the United States Department of Agriculture confirmed the first case of a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/15/science/covid-wild-mink-utah.html" target="_blank">wild animal infected with SARS-CoV-2</a>, the virus that causes COVID-19. Researchers found an infected wild mink in Utah near a mink farm with its own COVID-19 outbreak.</p><p>Are humans transmitting this virus to wildlife? If so, what would this mean for wild animals – and people too?</p>
<h2>How Viruses Hop Between Species</h2><p>We are <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=iAQr9XwAAAAJ" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">two scientists</a> who study <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=pgjLWAEAAAAJ" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">viruses in wildlife</a> and are currently <a href="https://sites.tufts.edu/CoVERS" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">running a study</a> investigating the potential for SARS-CoV-2 transmission from humans into domestic and wild animals.</p><p>When viruses move from one species into another, scientists call it spillover. Thankfully, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro.2017.45" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">spillover doesn't occur easily</a>.</p><p>To infect a new species, a virus must be able to bind to a protein on a cell and enter the cell while dodging an immune system the virus hasn't encountered before. Then, as a virus works to avoid <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coviro.2011.07.002" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">antibodies and other antiviral attackers</a>, it must replicate at a high enough volume to be transmitted on to the next animal.</p><p>This usually means that the more closely related two species are, the more likely they are to share viruses. Chimpanzees, the species most closely related to humans, <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/05/primatologists-work-keep-great-apes-safe-coronavirus" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">can catch and get sick from many human viruses</a>. Earlier this month, veterinarians at the San Diego Zoo announced that the zoo's <a href="https://zoo.sandiegozoo.org/pressroom/news-releases/gorilla-troop-san-diego-zoo-safari-park-test-positive-covid-19" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">troop of gorillas was infected with SARS–CoV–2</a>. This indicated it is possible for this virus to jump from humans to our close relatives.</p><p>Some viruses tend to stay in a single species or in closely related species, while other viruses seem innately more capable of large species jumps. Influenza, for example, can infect a <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/flu/other/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wide variety of animals, from sparrows to whales</a>. Similarly, coronaviruses are known to <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038%2Fs41579-018-0118-9" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">regularly jump between species</a>.</p><p>The question of how many and which species can be infected by SARS-CoV-2 – and which ones might be able to support continued circulation of the virus – is an important one.</p>
<h2>Searching for COVID-19 in Wildlife</h2><p>For human-to-wildlife spillover of SARS-CoV-2 to occur, an animal needs to be exposed to a high-enough viral dose to become infected.</p><p>The highest-risk situations are during direct contact with humans, such as a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/01/science/Covid-bats.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">veterinarian's caring for an injured animal</a>. Contact between a sick person and a pet or farm animal also poses a risk, as the domestic animal could act as an intermediate host, eventually passing the virus to a wild animal.</p><p>Another way COVID-19 could spill over from humans into animals is through indirect infection, <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/can-marine-mammals-catch-covid-19-new-study-says-its-possible-180976471/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">such as through wastewater</a>. COVID-19 and other pathogens can be detected in waste streams, many of which end up dumped, untreated, into environments where wildlife like marine mammals may be exposed. This is thought to be how <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0062259" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">elephant seals in California became infected with H1N1 influenza</a> during the swine flu pandemic in 2009.</p><p>To study whether spillover of SARS-CoV-2 is happening, our team at Tufts is partnering with veterinarians and licensed wildlife rehabilitators across the U.S. to collect samples from and test animals in their care. Through the project, we have tested nearly 300 wild animals from over 20 species. So far, none – from bats to seals to coyotes – have shown any evidence of COVID-19 by swab or antibody tests.</p><p>Other researchers have launched targeted surveillance of wild animals in places where captive animals have been infected. The first confirmed infection in a wild mink was found during <a href="https://promedmail.org/promed-post/?id=8015608" target="_blank">surveillance near an infected mink farm</a>. It's not yet clear how this wild mink got the coronavirus, but the high density of infected minks and potentially infectious particles from them made it a high-risk location.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTUwNjgyMC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1OTA3ODk3OX0.-nR4pFCXOW974_jiSjY0HHR2_8gVL5cA8eYdLMSd5tI/img.jpg?width=980" id="fc711" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b901ace8188e316e4e411e7c5c690d83" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1200" data-height="800" />
Gorillas have been affected by human viruses in the past and are susceptible to the coronavirus. Thomas Fuhrmann via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA
<h2>Bad for Animals, Bad for Humans</h2><p>When a virus infects a new species, it sometimes mutates, adapting to infect, replicate and transmit more efficiently in a new animal. This is called host adaptation. When a virus jumps to a new host and begins adapting, the results can be unpredictable.</p><p>In late 2020, when SARS-CoV-2 jumped into farmed mink in Denmark, <a href="https://www.who.int/csr/don/03-december-2020-mink-associated-sars-cov2-denmark/en/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">it acquired mutations that were uncommon in humans</a>. Some of these mutations occurred in the part of the virus that most vaccines are designed to recognize. And it didn't just happen once – these mutations <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abe5901" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">independently arose in mink farms multiple times</a>. While it's not yet clear what impact, if any, these mutations may have on human disease or the vaccine, these are signs of host adaptation that could allow novel variants of the virus to persist and reemerge from animal hosts in the future.</p><p>Another risk is that SARS-CoV-2 could cause disease in animals. Ecologists are especially concerned about endangered species like the <a href="https://www.aaha.org/publications/newstat/articles/2020-12/endangered-black-footed-ferret-gets-experimental-covid-19-vaccine-in-colorado/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">black-footed ferret</a>, which is closely related to minks and thought to be very susceptible to the virus.</p><p>Human-to-wildlife spillover has happened before. In the late 20th century, the Ebola virus jumped from humans into great apes and has resulted in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/543S56a" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">devastating consequences for these endangered animals</a>. More recently, a human respiratory virus has been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-020-01506-8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">detected in threatened mountain gorilla populations</a> and has caused deaths as well.</p><p>But perhaps the biggest risk to humans is that spillover could result in the coronavirus establishing a reservoir in new animals and regions. This could provide opportunities for reintroduction of COVID-19 into humans in the future. This month researchers published a paper showing that this had already happened on a small scale with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abe5901" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">human–to–mink–to–human transmission on mink farms</a> in Denmark.</p><p>While our team has found no evidence of COVID-19 in wild animals in the U.S. at this time, we have seen convincing evidence of regular spillover into dogs and cats and some zoo animals. The discovery of the infected wild mink confirmed our fears. Seeing the first wild animal with natural COVID-19 is alarming, but sadly, not surprising.</p>
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<em>Jonathan Runstadler is a professor of infectious disease and global health at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Tufts University.</em>
</p><p>
<em>Kaitlin Sawatzki is a postdoctoral infectious disease researcher at Tufts University.</em>
</p><p>
<em>Disclosure statements: </em><em>Jonathan Runstadler receives funding from NIH/NIAID. </em><em>Kaitlin Sawatzki receives funding from the NIH/NIAID.</em>
</p><p>
<em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-covid-19-infecting-wild-animals-were-testing-species-from-bats-to-seals-to-find-out-151467" target="_blank">The Conversation</a></em><em>.</em><br/>
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A mass methane release could begin an irreversible path to full land-ice melt. NurPhoto / Contributor / Getty Images
By Peter Giger
The speed and scale of the response to COVID-19 by governments, businesses and individuals seems to provide hope that we can react to the climate change crisis in a similarly decisive manner - but history tells us that humans do not react to slow-moving and distant threats.
<p>Our evolution has selected the "fight or flight" instinct to deal with environmental change, so rather like the metaphor of the frog in boiling water, we tend to react too little and too late to gradual change.</p><p>Climate change is often described as global warming, with the implication of gradual changes caused by a steady increase in temperatures; from heatwaves to melting glaciers.</p><p>But we know from multidisciplinary scientific evidence - from geology, anthropology and archaeology - that climate change is not incremental. Even in pre-human times, it is episodic, when it isn't forced by a human-induced acceleration of greenhouse gas emissions and warming.</p><p>There are parts of our planet's carbon cycle, the ways that the earth and the biosphere store and release carbon, that could trigger suddenly in response to gradual warming. These are tipping points that once passed could fundamentally disrupt the planet and produce abrupt, non-linear change in the climate.</p>
A Game of Jenga
<p>Think of it as a game of Jenga and the planet's climate system as the tower. For generations, we have been slowly removing blocks. But at some point, we will remove a pivotal block, such as the collapse of one of the major global ocean circulation systems, for example the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), that will cause all or part of the global climate system to fall into a planetary emergency.</p><p>But worse still, it could cause runaway damage: Where the tipping points form a domino-like cascade, where breaching one triggers breaches of others, creating an unstoppable shift to a radically and swiftly changing climate.</p><p>One of the most concerning tipping points is mass methane release. Methane can be found in deep freeze storage within permafrost and at the bottom of the deepest oceans in the form of methane hydrates. But rising sea and air temperatures are beginning to thaw these stores of methane.</p><p>This would release a powerful greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, 30-times more potent than carbon dioxide as a global warming agent. This would drastically increase temperatures and rush us towards the breach of other tipping points.</p><p>This could include the acceleration of ice thaw on all three of the globe's large, land-based ice sheets – Greenland, West Antarctica and the Wilkes Basin in East Antarctica. The potential collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet is seen as a key tipping point, as its loss could eventually <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/324/5929/901" target="_blank">raise global sea levels by 3.3 meters</a> with important regional variations.</p><p>More than that, we would be on the irreversible path to full land-ice melt, causing sea levels to rise by up to 30 meters, roughly at the rate of two meters per century, or maybe faster. Just look at the raised beaches around the world, at the last high stand of global sea level, at the end of the Pleistocene period around 120,0000 years ago, to see the evidence of such a warm world, which was just 2°C warmer than the present day.</p>Cutting Off Circulation
<p>As well as devastating low-lying and coastal areas around the world, melting polar ice could set off another tipping point: a disablement to the AMOC.</p><p>This circulation system drives a northward flow of warm, salty water on the upper layers of the ocean from the tropics to the northeast Atlantic region, and a southward flow of cold water deep in the ocean.</p><p>The ocean conveyor belt has a major effect on the climate, seasonal cycles and temperature in western and northern Europe. It means the region is warmer than other areas of similar latitude.</p><p>But melting ice from the Greenland ice sheet could threaten the AMOC system. It would dilute the salty sea water in the north Atlantic, making the water lighter and less able or unable to sink. This would slow the engine that drives this ocean circulation.</p><p><a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/atlantic-conveyor-belt-has-slowed-15-per-cent-since-mid-twentieth-century" target="_blank">Recent research</a> suggests the AMOC has already weakened by around 15% since the middle of the 20th century. If this continues, it could have a major impact on the climate of the northern hemisphere, but particularly Europe. It may even lead to the <a href="https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/handle/10871/39731?show=full" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cessation of arable farming</a> in the UK, for instance.</p><p>It may also reduce rainfall over the Amazon basin, impact the monsoon systems in Asia and, by bringing warm waters into the Southern Ocean, further destabilize ice in Antarctica and accelerate global sea level rise.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTUwNjQ0MS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NTgwMjY2MX0.IvCzVigFTmY5avYrfi_Muh47dXM1TvLwTPFv5Zs95Pk/img.png?width=980" id="b580e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="491f17ca2d159ebbc564d9c4a6771983" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1222" data-height="1324" />
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation has a major effect on the climate. Praetorius (2018)
Is it Time to Declare a Climate Emergency?
<p>At what stage, and at what rise in global temperatures, will these tipping points be reached? No one is entirely sure. It may take centuries, millennia or it could be imminent.</p><p>But as COVID-19 taught us, we need to prepare for the expected. We were aware of the risk of a pandemic. We also knew that we were not sufficiently prepared. But we didn't act in a meaningful manner. Thankfully, we have been able to fast-track the production of vaccines to combat COVID-19. But there is no vaccine for climate change once we have passed these tipping points.</p><p><a href="https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-global-risks-report-2021" target="_blank">We need to act now on our climate</a>. Act like these tipping points are imminent. And stop thinking of climate change as a slow-moving, long-term threat that enables us to kick the problem down the road and let future generations deal with it. We must take immediate action to reduce global warming and fulfill our commitments to the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Paris Agreement</a>, and build resilience with these tipping points in mind.</p><p>We need to plan now to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, but we also need to plan for the impacts, such as the ability to feed everyone on the planet, develop plans to manage flood risk, as well as manage the social and geopolitical impacts of human migrations that will be a consequence of fight or flight decisions.</p><p>Breaching these tipping points would be cataclysmic and potentially far more devastating than COVID-19. Some may not enjoy hearing these messages, or consider them to be in the realm of science fiction. But if it injects a sense of urgency to make us respond to climate change like we have done to the pandemic, then we must talk more about what has happened before and will happen again.</p><p>Otherwise we will continue playing Jenga with our planet. And ultimately, there will only be one loser – us.</p>
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