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Explainer: Nine ‘Tipping Points’ that Could Be Triggered by Climate Change
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Explainer: Nine ‘Tipping Points’ that Could Be Triggered by Climate Change

Robert McSweeney
Carbon Brief, 2020
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Analytical
  • Scientific
  • Applicable

Recommendation

Global warming is moving our planet’s essential systems toward tipping points, where minuscule changes can produce irrevocable damage. Most scientists agree that a tipping point designates an abrupt change when an environmental system is forced across a threshold from which it can’t recover, causing significant, sometimes permanent destruction. Disappearing glaciers, increased droughts, sea level rise and hotter temperatures are warning signs. The process may take decades or centuries, but once the tipping begins, it can’t be stopped.

Take-Aways

  • Climate change is disrupting the Atlantic Ocean’s Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) system.
  • If the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) disintegrates, coastlines will experience significant impacts.
  • Models indicate that the Amazon rainforest may begin an irreversible transition to treeless grasslands.

About the Author

Robert McSweeney is Carbon Brief’s science editor. He holds an MEng in mechanical engineering from the University of Warwick and an MSc in climate change from the University of East Anglia. He previously spent eight years working on climate change projects at the consultancy firm Atkins.

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