Tipping point

Climate Tipping Points Are Nearer Than You Think

December 12, 2023 James Dyke and David Armstrong McKay, Resilience. Educate! climate crisis, collapse, Report, Tipping point

It’s now almost inevitable that 2023 will be the warmest year ever recorded by humans, probably the warmest for at least 125,000 years. Multiple temperature records were smashed with global average temperatures for some periods well above 1.5°C. Antarctic sea ice loss is accelerating at frightening rates along with many other indicators of rapid climate change. Does this mean 2023 is the year parts of the climate tip into a much more dangerous state? Most people expect that if a system, like someone’s body, an ecosystem, or part of the climate system, becomes stressed, it’ll respond fairly predictably – double the pressure, double the impact, and so on.

Study: Ecological Collapse Could Happen Much Sooner Than Expected

June 25, 2023 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. Educate! Amazon Rainforest, climate crisis, collapse, Tipping point

Without a doubt, the landscape of our planet is changing. Arctic sea ice is melting, rainforests are being razed for agriculture, deserts are expanding and meadows are appearing in places that have been covered in snow for thousands of years. In some parts of the world, tipping points have already been surpassed, and in others, the danger of that happening may come sooner than we might think. According to The Conversation, more than 20 types of ecosystem have already experienced “regime shifts” and more than 20 percent — including the Amazon rainforest — are on the precipice of it.

Pandora’s Box: Emerging Threats To Climate Stability

January 3, 2023 Ben Shread-Hewitt, Resilience. Educate! climate crisis, Environment, Oceans, Tipping point

Climate change is multifaceted. It has long been certain that CO2 emissions are altering the atmosphere, causing heating and disequilibrium — but it is also clear that CO2 is far from the only culprit, or that the Greenhouse effect is the only negative feedback cycle driving the temperature up. Methane emissions, Ice albedo decline, and ocean acidification are all components of Climate breakdown. Widely acknowledged, but also less understood. However, the story of climate breakdown continues to evolve. The more scientists study its effects and causes, the more ways they find human activity is forcing disequilibrium. Likewise, the more ways in which they find nature is now producing feedback mechanisms outside of our control. This article is a part of a series of summaries of some of these newer findings, and brief explanations of their mechanisms.

1.5 Degrees Paris Climate Target Not ‘Safe Or Appropriate’

May 25, 2022 David Spratt and Ian Dunlop, Resilience. Educate! climate crisis, Environment, Paris Agreement, Tipping point

Climate tipping points in the Antarctica, the Arctic and the Amazon are at risk of being reached before or at the current level of global warming of 1.2 degrees Celsius, requiring a “major rethink” of global climate goals and the action necessary to achieve them, according to a recent report. A ‘tipping point’ is a threshold at which a small change initiates a larger, more critical change, taking the climate system from one state to a discreetly different state, which may be abrupt and irreversible. Climate Dominoes: Tipping point risks for critical climate systems, is published by Breakthrough – National Centre for Climate Restoration.

Daily movement news and resources