Washington, Dec. 4 (ANI): Scientists have reportedly warned that slow process of climate change may lead to surprise shifts that could threaten human communities in years to come.
Researchers from the National Academy of Sciences have called for an early-warning system that would watch bellwethers like Midwestern aquifers, Antarctic ice sheets and tropical coral reefs for signs that a 'tipping point' is coming.
Lead author, Jim White said that a lot of these things require not only monitoring what's going on out there in the natural world and monitoring what is done in the human-built environment but also the dollar-wise risk involved, CNN reports.
White said that the cost to build an early climate warning network would be 'trivial' compared to the cost of the assets at risk.
He explained that watching for symptoms like the risk of increased heat waves, a decline in ocean oxygen levels and rapid changes to ecosystems threatening food and water supplies, would give communities that depend on those ecosystems the ability to adapt.
James Hansen, now the head of the climate science program at Columbia University in New York said that these growing climate impacts are rapid than anticipated and occurring while global warming is less than 1 degree C, imply that society should reassess what constitutes a 'dangerous level' of global warming, the report added. (ANI)
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