Assessment by More Than 30 Scientists in Science Finds the Cryosphere Has Moved Beyond Its Planetary Safe Operating Space
An international team led by researchers at the Stockholm Resilience Centre at Stockholm University published 'The cryosphere beyond a planetary safe operating space' in Science. The assessment, compiled by more than 30 scientists including researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Tsinghua University and Beijing Normal University, defines precautionary boundaries for the cryosphere — ice sheets, mountain glaciers, sea ice, permafrost and snow cover — using the relatively stable conditions of the past 11,700 years, the Holocene, as the reference point, and analyses four variables: land ice, sea ice, snow cover and permafrost.
The study concludes that current and committed changes are taking the cryosphere increasingly far from Holocene conditions, that its safe operating space has been transgressed, and that reinforcing feedback loops risk accelerating further degradation. Lead author Dr Bo Su said the cryosphere has already exceeded its planetary safe operating space. The authors urge policymakers to use the framework as a scientific basis for precautionary targets to limit greenhouse gas and black carbon emissions. The paper was published during COP31 in Antalya, Turkey (November 9–20), with DOI 10.1126/science.aef5636.
Source: Science
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图中是南极洲 Brunt 冰架的航拍影像。Wikimedia Commons — Michael Studinger, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Public domain
