Against the backdrop of a rapidly warming planet, the need to better understand the nature and long-term impact of positive climatic feedback loops — processes that accelerate the effects of warming — becomes critically important.
One way to assess the role and impact of climatic feedback processes is to use modeling studies to look into the likely future based on what we know now. Climate projection models, for instance, are the tools behind the 1.5° C global warming threshold adopted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Alternatively, you can look into the past to see what happened at a time when the Earth was up to 1-1.5°C warmer than today. That is what UC Santa Barbara’s Syee Weldeab(link is external) did in a paper(link is external) (link is external)published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The professor of paleoclimatology found feedback processes that have concerning implications for our modern, ongoing warming.
Read more at University of California - Santa Barbara