Climate tipping points could lock in unstoppable changes to the planet – how close are they?

By David Armstrong McKay, Researcher in Earth System Resilience, Stockholm University

Continued greenhouse gas emissions risk triggering climate tipping points. These are self-sustaining shifts in the climate system that would lock-in devastating changes, like sea-level rise, even if all emissions ended.

The first major assessment in 2008 identified nine parts of the climate system that are sensitive to tipping, including ice sheets, ocean currents and major forests. Since then, huge advances in climate modelling and a flood of new observations and records of ancient climate change have given…

Read complete article

~	In Knife, his memoir of surviving attack, Salman Rushdie confronts a world where liberal principles like free speech are old-fashioned

~	It never rains but it pours: intense rain and flash floods have increased inland in eastern Australia

~	‘It could be the death of the museum’: why research cuts at a South Australian institution have scientists up in arms

~	Rugby stadiums are sold as an economic asset – but NZ needs to ask if they’re really worth it

~	The ‘devil comet’ 12P/Pons-Brooks has finally become visible from Australia. What can we expect?

~	Some families push back against journalists who mine social media for photos – they have every right to

~	I wholeheartedly recommend The President: a brilliant revival of a play of decay, terror and revulsion

~	Many prisoners go years without touching a smartphone. It means they struggle to navigate life on the outside

~	Good news: midlife health is about more than a waist measurement. Here’s why

~	Are 2 mid-career AFL retirements a sign Australian athletes are taking brain health more seriously?