Climate tipping points

What this episode covers

What would happen if climate change pushed the planet past a breaking point?If you’ve seen the 2004’s The Day After Tomorrow, you might picture massive tidal waves, superstorms engulfing entire continents, and oceans freezing overnight. It made for exciting cinema, but the real scientific discussion around climate “tipping points” is more complicated.Scientists believe that gradual warming could push critical Earth systems over thresholds that trigger large and potentially irreversible changes. From the decline of tropical coral reefs to the risk of shifts in the Amazon rainforest or the Atlantic Ocean circulation, understanding how close we may be to these tipping points is one of the most critical questions we face as a species.But not everyone agrees that “tipping points” are the best way to think about climate risk. Are they a crucial framework about how complex systems behave, or a confusing metaphor that distracts from the real work of cutting emissions?

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