Earth's Warning Signals: Stop the Climate Domino - Observations Indicate Declining Stability of Four Major Elements

The review paper published in Nature Geoscience concludes that four major Earth system elements—the Greenland ice sheet, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), the Amazon rainforest, and the South American monsoon—are losing stability based on observational data. These elements influence each other, raising concerns that a change in one could trigger a cascading effect on the others. The research team detected the decline in stability using early warning indicators such as delayed recovery from disturbances and warned that the risk of nearing a tipping point increases with every tenth of a degree rise in temperature. Additionally, they propose the establishment of a global monitoring system centered on satellite observations and the immediate and decisive reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. This article organizes the key points of the paper, its reception, and points of contention, and highlights implications for policy and business.