What Will Earth Look Like When These 6 Tipping Points Hit?

A “tipping point” is when a system, with just a small amount of additional energy, is pushed from one stable state to another suddenly and dramatically. This can be a chair falling backwards. Or it can be a major earth system collapsing.

The IPCC recently identified 15 potential climate-related tipping points that scientists have grown increasingly worried we are getting close to crossing due to global warming. In this episode of Weathered, we look at 6 of the major candidates, how they are all interconnected and influence each other, and what it would mean if they were triggered. These tipping points or tipping elements are the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, the Amazon rainforest, global monsoons, the AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation) and the earth’s permafrost and coral reefs.

The consequences for any of these systems being pushed over the edge would be truly catastrophic and would encompass everything from massive droughts, loss of biodiversity, increased flooding, heat waves, large scale climate migration, food shortages, and much more.

Weathered is a show hosted by weather expert Maiya May and produced by Balance Media that helps explain the most common natural disasters, what causes them, how they’re changing, and what we can do to prepare.

And keep up with Weathered and PBS Terra on:

[deepashtray]

There are too many powerful greedy people in the world who could watch this and say "I can live with that."

[lyndaschroeder]

AS an outdoor person and an organic farmer 80 years old I have seen the loss of many insect, and bird species that we need to pollinate our food...so sad, scary.

[debbiehenri]

And here we are, 10 months later, and some climate experts are starting to admit that the climate is changing faster than they had expected.
This is because we humans talk and talk, but precious few will do much to really change their lifestyle.

[shaunhall]

The tipping point happened 40 years ago when we didn't make the changes we should have. We love talking about the doom but we never did anything about it.

[peterhughes]

As a scientist/ ecologist this video was an under statement imo. We're already hitting several tipping points and the impacts of plus 5m sea level rise were glossed over with rose coloured glasses. Not stated were the loss of 1000s of other ecosystems such as peat lands, alpine and sub alpine areas, cool temperate rainforests, wetlands, the sub arctic etc. The impact on human populations is also glossed over imo. Societies will increasingly fall into economic collapse and chaos and we can see that starting already in 2022.

[timelsen]

"WE STILL HAVE TIME", is the phrase of procrastination and feeds into denial. Discovered 140 years ago, to have the alarm bell rung repeatedly over the years as nothing changed enough, always ending with, "WE STILL HAVE TIME, " clearly didn't work. No one in a movie theater fire would ever say such a thing.

[gijbuis]

I remember as a child in the UK how I used to catch salamanders in wild pools. Nobody told me not to! But how many kids today have ever seen salamanders in their natural habitat?

[deborahjeffress]

I’m an American living in southern Mexico. I’ve been here 13 years. The rainy season used to start in mid May. Now it starts mid July. We are receiving less that half the rain than previous years. It’s really scary to me. Scariest of all are the climate deniers who really just want to get as rich as they can. They don’t believe the science. They choose not to believe! God help us.

[RebeccaTreeseed]

I have already made massive changes, I relocated away from the coast, downsized and created a 5 acre native edible food forest for my family and wildlife. I now have apex predators visiting from a wildlife corridor behind my land. I built 2 ft high hugelkultur beds around my house to berm and moderate indoor temps and grow food without irrigation. I compost and do not use pesticides or fertilizers. I switched electric appliances for manual. Every year my heating bill has dropped, in part due to better passive solar use.
My old truck gets 33 mpg and I doubt I will change it. I am looking at an ebike, but only drive once a week into town.
If a collapse shut off my electricity (community solar), I have a partially underground shed that maintains better temperatures.
Takes a lot more than me, though.

[normzemke]

Dear PBS Terra, you REALLY need to talk about "overshoot". Climate change isn't the only environmental disaster we are facing. We (the humans) simply can't keep "overshooting" Mother Nature's ability to heal the planet. Dumping toxins in the rivers, cutting down rain forests, sucking all the water out of the ground, overfishing, plastic in the ocean, spraying pesticides on everything, etc. We have got to spot over-exploiting the planet. To put it bluntly, capitalism needs to be scaled back. Even if electric vehicles and solar panels keep us below 1.5c, it won't make any difference if the Earth is a burned out wreck.

[peterroland]

Have you noticed that there are hardly any bugs on the windshield any more when driving down the highway? We have known about the issues of pollution, heat islands et al since the 1970s but humans don't do anything until a situation is critical. In 2015 when I saw the Mendenhall glacier near Juneau, Alaska which had retreated eight kilometres (five miles) my thought was that it was too late; we had already hit the tipping point.

[BROWNDIRTWARRIOR]

This show was a year ago. We have topped 1.5 and the climate is becoming unravelled.

[RICKONORATO]

I was scuba diving in the Maldives and they actually gave us colored filters to put over our goggles to make all the dead, white coral look livelier and more colorful. I could not believe it.

[laurierounds]

As an avid amateur gardener nearing 70, I have seen dramatic changes in the garden. Where I live went from a zone 5 to a zone 6. Some of my annuals, like snapdragons have gone from annuals to perennials. I can now grow plants & shrubs that couldn’t take the winter temps in the past.
Nothing will change in the US until we do reach a tipping point (flooding in Houston for example). When someone’s income (fossil fuel industry) is on the line, they will continue to fund anti-climate research & dissemination. Just like the tobacco industry did starting in the 60s.
I’m hoping our leaders recognize this eminent threat, but I fear it is already too late.
Don’t invest in coastal properties for now, especially in FL. Or lower Manhattan & Long Island for that matter. Phoenix will become unlivable. Potable water problems in the west will continue to worsen.

[bryguysays]

I remember being a child in the 1980's Across the street from our house in town was a large empty lot/yard filled with grass, dandelions, flowers, etc. In mid-afternoon one day I walked over to check it out. There were so many bees, butterflies, dragonflys and other insects flying around. I felt like I was a kid on Heaven exploring the world outside. Yet since the mid-90's to today, all these critters disappeared or are so rare to see.

[stephenrobinson]

Sky news released a video yesterday talking about record temperatures yesterday.
The thing that shocked me, was how many people commented they didn't care but most didn't believe it.

[glampirexo]

Imagine building a machine in your home. There's a side effect of the mechanics that causes a fire, but otherwise works fine. So you just keep working it while it burns more and more of your home, yet you still have that machine going. We're insane as a people.

[johnmcnulty]

The Thwaits glacier alone will cause chaos because even a few feet of ocean rise will cause millions upon millions of people to move farther inland and we have seen just recently how horribly humans react to immigrants moving into other people's region. And make no mistake, Thwaits is going now in real time.. And yet, I know many people who've had babies this year. Wow, good luck, babies.

[ianhenk]

You could add what this means for worldwide crop yield. Like, in numbers of people who no longer have something to eat.

[kemjohnson]

I was "lucky" enough to help measure the movement of the WAIS in 1995/6. The ice streams within the sheet were moving rapidly. I heard recently the the tipping point for the WAIS has been passed...game over. Living in Aotearoa (NZ), we here all aware of the threat to the populations of the small atolls in the South Pacific near us.