They have urged for immediate action to prevent a potentially catastrophic threat to society, as stated by the Climate News Network ahead of the COP25 climate change summit in Madrid. A group of seven researchers, who recently published a commentary in the journal Nature, warned that irreversible changes to the Earth's environmental systems are already underway, leading to a 'state of planetary emergency'. The scientists described a global tipping point as a crucial threshold where the planet's systems reach a point of no return, such as the loss of the Amazon rainforest, accelerated melting of ice sheets, and thawing of permafrost. This collapse could result in extreme 'hothouse' conditions that would render certain areas on Earth uninhabitable. The scientists emphasized that the window to prevent such tipping points may have already closed, while achieving net zero emissions would require at least 30 years. The photo shows a boat and a bicycle on the dried lake Poopo in Bolivia, which has been affected by climate change. According to Timothy Lenton, a professor of climate change and Earth system science at the University of Exeter, there are nine areas where tipping points are already occurring. These include the destruction of the Amazon, reduction of Arctic sea ice, coral reef die-offs, melting of ice sheets, permafrost thawing, destabilization of boreal forests, and a slowdown of ocean circulation. Lenton believes that these events are interconnected and changes in one area will impact another, leading to a worsening cascade of crises. According to the study, regional warming is causing Arctic permafrost to thaw, releasing carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere. This has also led to insect disturbances and fires in North American boreal forests, potentially changing some regions from carbon sinks to carbon sources. Researchers have found that the climate may be more sensitive than previously believed, with a global tipping point being a possibility. Last year's research also looked at different types of regime shifts in physical climate and ecological systems. The text suggests that surpassing tipping points in one system can heighten the likelihood of surpassing them in other systems. This concept of climate tipping points has been around for 20 years, introduced by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The UN originally proposed that these 'large-scale discontinuities' would only occur if global warming surpassed 5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. According to climate scientists, information from the two most recent IPCC reports, released in 2018 and September 2019, indicates that tipping points could occur with a temperature increase of 1 to 2 degrees Celsius. Currently, global average temperatures are approximately 1 degree Celsius higher than in the pre-industrial era, and they are still rising.