A tipping point for climate

2016 was the year that we came face-to-face with our destiny from climate change, and it didn’t look good. The changes, not just in record temperatures but also in weather intensity, animal behaviour, or sea composition, began to approach catastrophic tipping points.

This is where the term “uncontrollable” is being used to describe what happens when this next threshold is crossed, where one change aggravates another to accelerate what already is a dire process.

Temperatures in the Arctic are currently about 20 degrees Celsius above what would be expected, which scientists describe as “off the charts”. Sea ice the lowest ever recorded for the time of year.

The joint Arctic Resilience Report – lead author the Stockholm Environment Institute - warned that changes in the Arctic could cause uncontrollable global climate change. There’s that word again. “The warning signals are getting louder,” said Marcus Carson of the Stockholm Institute. “These developments also make the potential for triggering tipping points and feedback loops much larger.”

A tipping point in the Arctic occurs as the snow disappears altogether not only depriving the earth of a massive cooling ice sheet, but also a white reflective shield to repel sun rays.

The loop occurs when the missing ice exposes darkened ground and vegetation – as well as sea - that absorbs heat and round it goes.

The billions of tonnes of vegetation, and more importantly methane – a far more potent greenhouse gas - trapped in the frozen northern tundra then thaws and joins the pressure cooker atmosphere broiling the earth.

The report’s research comes as aides to US president-elect, Donald Trump, have announced plans to remove the budget for climate change science used by NASA and other US research agencies, to spend it instead on space exploration. That’s right kids, we’re going to Mars. Let’s hear from Mr Carson again. “That would be a huge mistake,” he said “It would be like ripping out the aeroplane’s cockpit instruments while you are in mid-flight.”

“These are very serious problems, very serious changes are happening, but they are still poorly understood. A lot of the major science is done by the US.”

Imagine your doctor said you had “very serious problems.”

Scientists have long predicted that the knockon effect of exceeding tipping points such as those occurring in the Arctic could lead to “unpredictable and potentially irreversible consequences for global warming.”

Hug your kids. They’re probably screwed.