Have feedbacks taken over?

[Brenda]

For about one year now, global temperature anomalies have been extremely high, as illustrated by the image below, created with a screenshot from Copernicus, showing an anomaly from 1991-2020 of 0.86°C on June 1, 2024.

Despite pledges by politicians to ensure that temperatures would not cross 1.5°C above pre-industrial, the growth rate of the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere appears to be accelerating, as illustrated by the image below, adapted from NOAA and showing concentration of carbon dioxide at Mauna Loa, Hawaii.

There are numerous tipping points and non-linear, self-amplifying feedbacks that can all contribute, interact and start to kick in with greater ferocity, amplifying and further accelerating the rise, as discussed at the feedbacks page.

What could push up temperatures dramatically is loss of Arctic sea ice, as discussed in earlier posts such as this one. Ominously, the North Atlantic sea surface temperature anomaly has risen strongly recently, as illustrated by the images below.

https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2024/06/have-feedbacks-taken-over.html