Descriptions:
TED Talk: Tipping points in climate science normally refer to small changes in the Earth system that unleash much broader, typically damaging impacts that accelerate climate change. Well-known examples are rising sea levels due to disintegration of the Greenland and West Antarctica ice sheets, or the release of methane from the thawing permafrost.
They help to underline the urgency of climate action. Today most people understand we must reduce emissions – and very quickly. In this talk, Tim will summarise recent evidence regarding climate tipping points, which supports declarations that we are in a ‘climate emergency’.
Then he will turn to identifying positive social tipping points that will need to be triggered to have any hope of limiting global warming to well below 2ºC. Tipping points in climate science normally refer to small changes in the Earth system that unleash much broader, typically damaging impacts that accelerate climate change.
Well-known examples are rising sea levels due to disintegration of the Greenland and West Antarctica ice sheets, or the release of methane from the thawing permafrost. They help to underline the urgency of climate action. Today most people understand we must reduce emissions – and very quickly.
In this talk, Tim will summarise recent evidence regarding climate tipping points, which supports declarations that we are in a ‘climate emergency’. Then he will turn to identifying positive social tipping points that will need to be triggered to have any hope of limiting global warming to well below 2ºC.