Signs of climate tipping points are growing

Scientists have long warned that climate change is not a linear process: global patterns can chug along looking quite normal for long periods of time even as we continue to pump increasing amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and then … bam, a tipping point is reached, pushing us into a new “normal.”

Before that moment, we might see signs of “squealing,” according to a recent paper published in the journal Nature. Squealing happens when a system being pushed toward a critical point shifts back and forth between two states until tipping into a new condition.

It’s happened before, but this time it could happen thanks to the “help” of humans, as these signs might indicate:

• North Sea cod are leaving the North Sea, which has grown increasingly warm over the past four decades;
• In fact, fish populations around the globe are collapsing in record numbers;
• A 1,900-year cooling trend in the Arctic that should have continued into the 20th century has instead flipped into a dramatic warming trend over the past 50 years;
• Rising levels of methane, a greenhouse gas far more powerful than carbon dioxide, are also being observed in the Arctic;
• Pine beetle infestations and widespread fires sparked by warmer temperatures hint that the tipping point for the world’s northern forests might be near;
• One of Antarctica’s largest glaciers — Pine Island — is today shrinking in height by 16 metres per year, with drastic potential consequences for rising sea levels;
• French wines, as we know them, are in danger of disappearing due to more heat and expanding diseases from the south;