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Understanding the impact of global nature loss
Tipping points: why we're all affected
The loss and degradation of nature, accelerated by climate change, is taking us towards tipping points. When nature’s systems pass a tipping point, the consequences can be devastating. Sometimes this happens at a local level – like the collapse of fish populations leading to job losses and reduced incomes in coastal communities. But we also risk crossing global tipping points. Doing so could threaten all our food supplies, trigger widespread disasters like fires and flooding, and destabilise economies and societies everywhere.
How nature loss affects you
5 imminent tipping points with global significance
Early warning signs from monitoring and scientific evidence show that five global tipping points are fast approaching. Each tipping point poses grave threats to humanity, Earth’s life-support systems, and societies everywhere.
The Amazon: a drying rainforest
Deforestation and climate change are causing reduced rainfall in the Amazon, which could lead to the region becoming unsuitable for tropical rainforest. This would have devastating consequences for people, biodiversity and the global climate. A tipping point could be triggered if just 20–25% of the Amazon rainforest is destroyed. As much as 17% has been deforested already.
Amazon on the brink
Coral reef die-off
In the Great Barrier Reef, rising sea temperatures and ecosystem degradation have led to mass coral bleaching events in 1998, 2002, 2016, 2017, 2020, 2022 and 2024. As these events become more frequent, the Great Barrier Reef – along with a projected 70–90% of coral reefs globally – may no longer be able to work as an ecosystem. Hundreds of millions of people rely on these reefs for food, livelihoods and protection from storms.
A world without coral?
Melting ice sheets
Two massive ice sheets – in Greenland and the West Antarctic – are at risk of passing a tipping point where melting becomes irreversible. This would disrupt ocean circulation and cause sea levels to rise several metres, threatening people globally who live in some coastal areas.
Atlantic ocean circulation
The collapse of the subpolar gyre, a circular current south of Greenland, would devastate marine ecosystems. It would disrupt other ocean currents and dramatically change global weather patterns – especially in Europe and North America.
Permafrost thaw
Lots of carbon and methane are locked up in the frozen soils of the Arctic. As more of these areas of permafrost thaw because of global warming, more greenhouse gases will be released into the atmosphere. This will worsen the impacts of the climate crisis.
Diving deeper: how an ecosystem crosses a tipping point
Reefs can maintain their health and resilience as long as human-induced pressures - such as overfishing and pollution - remain below a certain level.
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However, if these pressures continue or increase over time, this weakens the resilience of reefs and makes them more vulnerable to future stresses.
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Already in a weakened state, all it takes is continued pressure or a sudden shock to the ecosystem - such as changes in water temperatures due to the climate crisis - to tip the ecosystem over the edge, triggering a mass coral bleaching event.
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While some coral reefs can recover from bleaching events, others may never fully recover - even if pressures are relaxed. And for the reefs that do recover, they are less likely to be able to recover the next time a bleaching event happens.
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