Greetings, thank you for visiting tippinglevel.blogspot.com. Let me start by clarifying what I mean when I make reference to a tipping level or tipping point. I am referring to a point in time when internal positive feedback loops cause our climate to continue changing without any further external forcing. In effect, a runaway climate which would continue until negative feedback causes the climate to re-stabilize, albeit in an entirely different state.
Runaway climate change is beyond doubt the most worrying aspect of global warming. The Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (I.P.C.C.) warns that temperatures will have increased by between 2 and 6 degrees by the year 2090.
A rise of two degrees would lead to more intense and more frequent storms, more flooding, longer droughts, crop failures in the poorer countries, possible collapse of the planet's rain forests, and an extinction of 20-30% of the earth's species. The I.P.C.C. says that all this could occur before 2050.
The six degree temperature rise prognosis predicts that the entire planet will be ice-free, with a sea level rise of 70 metres. Devastating hurricanes would blow with unimaginable ferocity causing ecological catastrophe. In the near future--we just don't know exactly when--tipping point will be reached and global warming will become unstoppable.
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