There are some tipping points that seem to have been hit - Amazon, Boreal forests, Baltic Sea methane, to name a few. Probably AMOC slow state as well. The Antarctic appears to be on a threshold. There’s no way we stop emissions altogether in the near term, and even if we did these tipping points mean that we would come to a different balance. For an idea of the scale of the challenge, all of our renewable energy so far hasn’t reduced fossil fuel reliance, it has only made up for some regions’ increases in energy usage.
I also recall that the studies showing that warming ceases quickly after emissions are not saying that this is true for minor emission reductions. Rather, the effect is only reached after bringing emissions to near-zero. The benefit is on a curve that is heavily weighted toward zero.
With as much damage has happened while we’ve idly watched, we should be acting like the rest of the tipping points are right around the corner. For all we know they could be.
There are some tipping points that seem to have been hit - Amazon, Boreal forests, Baltic Sea methane, to name a few. Probably AMOC slow state as well. The Antarctic appears to be on a threshold. There’s no way we stop emissions altogether in the near term, and even if we did these tipping points mean that we would come to a different balance. For an idea of the scale of the challenge, all of our renewable energy so far hasn’t reduced fossil fuel reliance, it has only made up for some regions’ increases in energy usage.
I also recall that the studies showing that warming ceases quickly after emissions are not saying that this is true for minor emission reductions. Rather, the effect is only reached after bringing emissions to near-zero. The benefit is on a curve that is heavily weighted toward zero.
With as much damage has happened while we’ve idly watched, we should be acting like the rest of the tipping points are right around the corner. For all we know they could be.