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Earth systems

The Amazon – On the Path to Collapse

By Abrupt changes, Amazon, Drought, Earth systems, Emissions flip, forest health, Tipping

The Amazon – On the Path to Collapse The trend is now painfully obvious. Degradation in the Amazon is closely tied to compound drought and heat waves, low-soil moisture and low humidity. These compound drought events have become far more frequent and severe since the turn of the century and have resulted in the Amazon…

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An Important Tipping Point for Our Total Earth System Has Passed – Natural Sequestration of Atmospheric CO2 Has Begun To Decline

By Abrupt changes, adaptation, Amazon, climate restoration, Earth systems, Emissions, Emissions flip, Emissions Scenarios, evolutionary boundaries, forest health, Forest Mortality, Impacts, Shifting Ecology, Tipping

An Important Tipping Point for Our Total Earth System Has Passed – Natural Sequestration of Atmospheric CO2 Has Begun To Decline Natural sequestration of carbon dioxide is in decline: climate change will accelerate The familiar cover image of the Mauna Loa atmospheric CO2 concentration now reveals what has been coming for decades. Natural sequestration of…

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By climate restoration, climate solutions, CO2 Removal and Sequestration, Earth systems, Emissions Scenarios, engineered solutions, Engineering, evolutionary boundaries, geoengineering, Legacy Policy, Negative emissions, Point of No Return, Scenarios, Solutions, Tipping

The Scenario Bias Understates Earth’s Captured Co2 Injection Capacity A review of the Associated Press story, Study: Less carbon storage capacity than thought, by Tammy Webber, based on Gidden et al., A prudent planetary limit for geologic carbon storage, Nature, September 3, 2025. Associated Press, September 3, 2025 – “The world has far fewer places…

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Antarctic Tipping Warning, Mega Drying – Now greatest sea level rise contributor, Total Earth systems sequestration flips into decline

By Abrupt changes, Antarctic sea ice, climate emergency, Drought, Earth systems, Emissions flip, feedback, forest health, Forest Mortality, Gulf Stream, ice sheets, ocean processes, Permafrost melt, Point of No Return, rainfall, sea ice, Sea Level Rise, Tipping, West Antarctic Ice Sheet

Evidence continues to mount that Earth systems processes have passed tipping points or their tipping is foregone without rapid restoration of our climate to within the evolutionary boundary conditions of our former climate. No amount of warming beyond the maximum of our old climate is now safe and we must cool from today to restore…

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Sudden Jump in Academic Findings Indicating the Crossing of Numerous New Earth System Tipping Points

By Abrupt changes, Antarctic sea ice, Climate Culture, climate emergency, Climate Reform, climate restoration, climate solutions, CO2 Removal and Sequestration, Earth systems, engineered solutions, Engineering, evolutionary boundaries, feedback, forest health, Forest Mortality, geoengineering, ice sheet, Impacts, Legacy Policy, modeling, ocean processes, Oceans, sea ice, Shifting Ecology, Solutions, Strategy, The Unexpected, Tipping, Vegetation Response

Findings since mid-May reveal new and more serious insight into tipping threshold crossing of the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets, Antarctic sea ice, ocean acidification, and tropical and boreal forests. The 30 percent warming jump in 2023 and 2024 is crucial to understanding the extreme risks of our current and rapidly accelerating climate trajectory. But…

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The Warming Rate for the Last Two Years Has Been 25 Times the Warming Rate of the Last 150 Years

By Abrupt changes, aerosols, Climate Catastrophes, Climate Culture, climate emergency, climate pollutants short-lived, climate restoration, climate solutions, CO2 Removal and Sequestration, Earth systems, Emissions flip, feedback, geoengineering, Legacy Policy, Negative emissions, Point of No Return, Scenarios, Sea Level Rise, Solutions, Temperature, The Unexpected, Tipping, West Antarctic Ice Sheet

Image: Yale Climate Connections The Warming Rate for the Last Two Years Has Been 25 Times the Warming Rate of the Last 150 Years A review of Hansen 2025. In the last two years, Earth has warmed 0.4 degrees C, compared to 1.2 degrees C warming in the previous 100 years. This warming rate is…

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Even Worse Polar Vortex Excursions Are Likely In Our Future

By Abrupt changes, Arctic Sea Ice, Arctic warming, Drought, Earth systems, Extreme Weather, feedback, Impacts, polar vortex, sea ice, Temperature

  Even Worse Polar Vortex Excursions Are Likely In Our Future It may not be this year, but it may be. These extreme cold outbreaks caused by climate change were generally not supposed to happen according to the models, but the models are understated. Almost all climate change effects are happening generations to a century…

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The “remarkably unprecedented” increase in warming rate in 2023 and 2024

By Abrupt changes, climate emergency, Earth systems, Extreme Weather, Heat, Temperature, The Unexpected, Tipping

The “remarkably unprecedented” increase in warming rate in 2023 and 2024 * All time global temperature records keep falling| * Almost every single day over the last 13 months set a new global daily all-time high temperature records Bruce Melton PE Climate Change Now Initiative, 501c3 ClimateDiscovery.org It’s not just all-time temperature records being broken….

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A Photo Journal of Climate Impact Across America, Nov 30, 2023 – Healthy Planet Action Coalition

By Abrupt changes, Alaska, Beach Report, Beaches coastal, Drought, Earth systems, forest health, Forest Mortality, Glaciers, in-depth and Popular Press, Permafrost, Permafrost melt, pine beetle, Podcasts, Presentations, Sea Level Rise, Shifting Ecology

Healthy Planet Action Coalition November 30, 2024 Climate Change Across America Slide Show (Download the slideshow here https://climatediscovery.org/climate-change-across-america-photographic-review-powerpoint-342-slides/ or click on the image above to see the presentation given by Melton. A 342 slide photojournal of climate impacts across North America. Join Bruce Melton PE as he tells the story of impacts from Padre Island…

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Worst Drought Ever in the Amazon, Caused By Climate Change

By Abrupt changes, Drought, Earth systems, Emissions flip, forest health, Forest Mortality, Impacts, Point of No Return, Shifting Ecology, Tipping

Worst Drought Ever in the Amazon, Caused By Climate Change The fifth, 100-year drought since 2005 has struck the Amazon in 2023; this one more extreme than any of the previous events. Each of these droughts except one were more extreme than the previous. These were 2010, 2015/2016, the smaller one in 2020, and the…

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No need to ruminate for 20 years about 1.5°C. It’s coming in 2024. (Hansen – with commentary)

By Abrupt changes, aerosols, climate emergency, Climate Policy, climate restoration, Earth systems, La Nina, Point of No Return, Temperature, Tipping

Ship Tracks captured in September 2009 by NASA imagery. These tracks are caused when sulfate emissions from burning fossil fuels create cloud condensation nuclei that result in the ship tracks seen in this image. These clouds are common and result in extra sunlight being reflected back into space, cooling Earth. No need to ruminate for…

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Brief: Tipping Initiation, Restoration Reverses Some Sea Level Rise, Beach Disintegration, Limit to Sea Level Rise Adaptation

By Abrupt changes, adaptation, Beach Report, Beaches coastal, climate restoration, Earth systems, Emissions flip, feedback, Tipping, West Antarctic Ice Sheet

Brief Report: Climate Tipping, Earth Systems Collapse Initiation, Climate Restoration Reverses Some Sea Level Rise, and the Barrier Island Disintegration Threshold, Limit to Sea Level Rise Adaptation A brief discussion with summarized academic findings. Climate Tipping, Earth Systems Collapse Initiation Greenland and Antarctica have seen their tipping activated. This does not mean they have passed…

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Faster than forecast, climate impacts trigger tipping points in the Earth system

By Abrupt changes, Climate Catastrophes, climate emergency, Earth systems, Emissions flip, evolutionary boundaries, feedback, Impacts, Point of No Return, Scenarios, The Unexpected, Tipping

Permafrost collapse, Glenn Highway, Alaska. Though permafrost has been thawing slightly since the end of the Little Ice Age, the rate of thaw today is so great that in combination with Amazon collapse and collapse of Canadian forests, natural feedback emissions rival all of transportation globally. Faster than forecast, climate impacts trigger tipping points in…

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NOAA Research in the Stratosphere is Taking Off

By aerosols, climate emergency, Earth systems, Emissions flip, Engineering, Forest Mortality, geoengineering, Point of No Return, Solutions, Strategy, Tipping

NOAA Research in the Stratosphere is Taking Off March 3, 2023, NOAA (Article updated April 2024: The year 2023 experienced a remarkably unprecedented jump in global temperature that has now exceeded the dangerous 1.5 Degrees C threshold. (See here) Enduring this amount of warming for long, likely no more than a couple to several decades,…

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Risky Feedbacks – Not In Models; Understated Solutions

By Abrupt changes, Arctic Sea Ice, Arctic warming, Climate Catastrophes, climate emergency, Climate Policy, climate restoration, climate solutions, Earth systems, Extreme Weather, feedback, Impacts, Scenarios, Solutions, Tipping

Risky Feedbacks – Not In Models; Understated Solutions Feedbacks are best understood by example. Austin’s 2023 ice storm that caused massive tree damage and excessive power outages was caused by a feedback. The ice storm stalled in a classic climate change-caused effect, creating a longer ice accumulation time than in our old climate. This additional…

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Giant Sequoias: A Tipping Point

By Abrupt changes, adaptation, Climate Catastrophes, climate emergency, climate restoration, Drought, Earth systems, Fire, forest health, Forest Mortality, Impacts, in-depth and Popular Press, Legacy Policy, pine beetle, Shifting Ecology, The Unexpected, Tipping

The Sequoia Burn Giant Sequoias: A Climate Tipping Point by Bruce Melton PE Follow MeltOn in the field on Instagram See the abridged version on Truthout.org: August 9, 2022. Summary: Up to 13,000 mature sequoias were killed by wildfire between 2015 and 2021, with a total known population of only about 75,500 mature trees. Sequoias…

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Gulf Stream Collapse Under Way

By Abrupt changes, climate emergency, Earth systems, Gulf Stream, ice sheet, Impacts, Oceans

Gulf Stream Collapse Under Way – Confirmation of Tipping Activation For nearly 20 years, the collapse or slowdown of the Gulf Stream has been speculated upon as more and more evidence shows it has begun. All the while, very strong response  from the general body of consensus climate scientists has been that the Gulf Stream…

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