AMU Emergency Management Opinion Public Safety

Six Climate Tipping Points–and 10 Solutions

The Existential Challenge

As we proceed, largely ineffectively, through the process of dealing with climate change and its impact on our civilization and way of life, we are offered opportunities — opportunities to continue our path of self-destruction and opportunities that could save our civilization as we know it.

Here is another presentation of the issues and opportunities that we can use to make our choice and do the right things for our children’s and grandchildren’s futures.

At What Point Do We Leap Off the Cliff?

One interesting and helpful way of looking at this is the concept of “tipping points.” Tipping points are those points in any decision system where you have committed yourself to a course of action that you cannot undo. Probably the best example of this type of decision is skydiving–once you’ve launched yourself out of perfectly good airplane, there’s no going back.

So to connect this to climate change, it’s important to note that there are many instances where we’ve already leaped out of the airplane. Sea level rise may be the best example.

We’ve cooked a significant but unquantifiable amount of sea level rise into the system already, and we have to deal with that. However, there are things that will also be tipping points where we can choose leap or not leap off the cliff, as explained [link url=”https://www.edf.org/blog/2015/05/28/6-climate-tipping-points-how-worried-should-we-be” title=”in this analysis from the Environmental Defense Fund”].

Per this analysis, these are the six tipping points or points of no return:

  • Melting of the arctic sea ice
  • Greenland becoming ice-free
  • Disintegration of the West Antarctic ice sheet
  • El Nino becomes permanent
  • The Amazon rain forest dies back
  • Boreal forests diminish

If you’re not aware of these issues and their importance, don’t feel bad. Most of society doesn’t have these issues anywhere on their radar. But the time is ending when we can simply not know–or deny, or ignore, or stick our heads in the sand–with respect to what these features of our world are going to do to us.

At What Point Might We Find a Parachute?

So are there parachutes, given that we continue to remain committed to leaping out of the airplane without one? Fortunately, the answer to this is still yes, although that answer has a limited lifespan, and may not be available much longer.

There are at least 10 remedial activities that will counter, to some extent or another, the various tipping points, thanks to [link url=”https://www.edf.org/card/10-climate-solutions-big-impact” title=”the Environmental Defense Fund”].

Remedial activities include:

  • Stop construction of dirty power plants
  • Eliminate legislative obstacles to clean power
  • End fossil fuel subsidies
  • Stop methane leaks

[link url=”https://www.edf.org/card/10-climate-solutions-big-impact” title=”Read the full list”] for details. Each example will make a measurable impact on backing us off from the cliff or the airplane door that we’re approaching without a parachute. And that’s worth doing.

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