It is worth noting that a tipping point can be caused by natural fluctuations in the climate as well as by an external forcing, such as global warming. But the feature they have in common is that once the collapse has started, it is virtually impossible to stop. For a component of the Earth system, the shift to one physical state to another may take many decades or centuries.

In the game of Jenga, the tower collapses in a split second. At some point, the tower can no longer support itself and it tips over. As time goes on, the tower becomes more and more misshapen and unstable. The gradual increase in global temperature sees block after block removed from the tower and placed on top. Or, to use a more animal-friendly metaphor, a game of Jenga – where a particular component within the Earth system, such as an ice sheet, circulation pattern or ecosystem, is represented by the tower of blocks.Īnimation by Tom Prater for Carbon Brief. That extra bit of warming would be, as the saying goes, the straw that breaks the camel’s back. So, rather than a bit more warming causing slightly hotter heatwaves or more melting of glaciers, it causes a dramatic shift to an entire system. In this article, Carbon Brief explores nine key tipping points across the Earth system, from collapsing ice sheets and thawing permafrost, to shifting monsoons and forest dieback.Īlong with this explainer, Carbon Brief has published guest articles from experts in four of the tipping points covered here. Pass this threshold and the child continues inevitably towards a different state – at the bottom of the slide rather than the top. There is a point beyond which it is too late for the child to stop themselves sliding down. Imagine a child pushing themselves from the top of a playground slide.

Guest post: How close is the West Antarctic ice sheet to a ‘tipping point’?.

Guest post: Could climate change and deforestation spark Amazon ‘dieback’?.

Guest post: The irreversible emissions of a permafrost ‘tipping point’.

Guest post: Could the Atlantic Overturning Circulation ‘shut down’?.

Explainer: Nine ‘tipping points’ that could be triggered by climate change.

This article is part of a week-long special series on “tipping points”, where a changing climate could push parts of the Earth system into abrupt or irreversible change

Fishing planet retrieves dots