Climate tipping points are critical thresholds that, once crossed, lead to the acceleration and irreversible change of our climate systems. For example, our ongoing greenhouse gas emissions are melting the world’s ice sheets and glaciers, which reduce the Earth’s ability to reflect hot solar radiation back into space. If we cross that tipping point and the ice dissapears, then the Earth’s surface will be darker, will absorb solar heat faster and consequently accelerate global warming. Or our melting of the arctic permafrost which will release large amounts of captured methane into the atmosphere. If we cross that tipping point and the permafrost melts, then the atmosphere will be filled with methane and the Earth’s greenhouse gas effect will irreversibly change our climate systems.
It’s important to take action before we reach these and other climate tipping points. But climate action is difficult when climate-denialism becomes institutionalized and begins dictating environmental policy at the highest levels of government. It’s hard to even discuss climate science openly when government-driven climate-hushing becomes the rule of the land. So let’s take this opportunity to remind ourselves what real science tells us about climate.
Join host, Bob Grove, and Dr Laura Pereira to discuss Climate Tipping Points.
Guests
Dr Pereira is a Professor in Sustainability Transformations & Futures with the Global Change Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, and a researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre in Sweden. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Geography and Environmental Science from the University of Oxford. Dr Pereira is a lead author of the Transformative Change assessment report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and the United Nations Environmental Program’s (UNEP) seventh Global Environmental Outlook assessment report (GEO7).