Skip to main content
Donate to the 95 years appeal
Humanity is looking extinction in the eye
As we pass global temperature tipping points, we face widespread ecosystem collapse and the development of self-sustaining destructive feedback loops, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and JOEL HELLEWELL
A major coral bleaching event at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, 2016 [Oregon State University/CC]

LAST week a team of scientists published their review of the evidence that has accumulated in the past few years about the properties and dangers of climate tipping points.

They compared this evidence with the 1.5-2°C rise in global temperature that will occur under the Paris Agreement. They found that we may still reach several climate tipping points or maybe have already crossed them.

A ”tipping point” is when a variable in a system, such as the global temperature in our climate, crosses a threshold which causes feedback.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
UNRECOGNISED POTENTIA:L: Girl students conduct an experiment by throwing cotton balls to demonstrate the instinctive reaction of flinching at The Big Bang Fair 2025, for young scientists and engineers, at the NEC in Birmingham on June 18 2025
Science and Society / 16 July 2025
16 July 2025

What’s behind the stubborn gender gap in Stem disciplines ask ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT in their column Science and Society

The ruins of Guernica after it was bombed by the Nazis on April 26, 1937
Science and Society / 2 July 2025
2 July 2025

While politicians condemned fascist bombing of Spanish civilians in 1937, they ignored identical RAF tactics across the colonies. Today’s aerial warfare continues this pattern of applying different moral standards based on geography and race, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT

LETHAL PLANS: Keir Starmer visits a defence contractor in Bedfordshire
Science and Society / 4 June 2025
4 June 2025

The distinction between domestic and military drones is more theoretical than practical, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT

UNEASY COHABITATION: Southern Ridges, Singapore, 2015 Pic: Zairon/CC
Science and Society / 21 May 2025
21 May 2025

Nature's self-reconstruction is both intriguing and beneficial and as such merits human protection, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT

 

Similar stories
Firefighter Geo Mulongo (centre) finishes his water while ta
World / 10 January 2025
10 January 2025
TASTE OF THINGS TO COME: Sedavi in the Spanish province of V
Features / 13 December 2024
13 December 2024
IAN SINCLAIR highlights a recent book chapter by climate scientist Professor Stefan Rahmstorf, who warns ‘a world full of horrors’ can expected if climate catastrophe is not averted
Studying a moss bank on bare rock, Norsel Point, in the Anta
Science and Society / 9 October 2024
9 October 2024
Vegetation is growing at an alarming rate on Antarctica’s northernmost region, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
ONLY THE BEGINNING: Forest fire at Umatilla National Forest,
Features / 13 August 2024
13 August 2024
A new study has found that forests destroyed by wildfires emit carbon long after the flames die, with implications for post-fire management, write NATASCHA KLJUN and JULIA KELLY