One of the more stunning visuals from Carbon Brief, backed by fine research, covers what might be future tipping points. Any individual will come to their own conclusions but my state of knowledge at present suggests that of the nine postulated tipping points, I’ve more or less come to terms with four of them: permafrost loss (I’ve seen the photos), Greenland ice sheet disintegration (read Jon Gertner’s book!), West Antarctic ice sheet disintegration, and coral reef die-off (I’ve heard Charlie Veron). Five of them – the Amazon rainforest dieback, the boreal forest shift, the Atlantic MOC breakdown, and possible shifts in West African monsoons and Indian monsoons – remain a mystery to me. I’d better hunker down and find out.
