Past the Tipping Point

Report for the UN into the activities of the world's 3,000 biggest companies estimates one-third of profits would be lost if firms were forced to pay for use, loss and damage of environment.

See The Guardian

Invoking the image of a souped-up sedan careening toward an abyss in a fog of mass marketing exhortations for more speed, the White House science adviser suggested that reasonable passengers would stop arguing if there really was a cliff, how close and how big the drop long enough to urge applying some brakes – while chanting “Our lifestyle is sacred!” and keeping the carbon accelerator jammed to the floorboards.

See internationalairline.co.cc

Researchers have known for years that the Arctic landscape is being transformed by rising temperatures. Now, scientists are amassing growing evidence that major events precipitated by warming — such as fires and the collapse of slopes caused by melting permafrost — are leading to the loss of tundra in the Arctic. The cold, dry, and treeless ecosystem — characterized by an extremely short growing season; underlying layers of frozen soil, or permafrost; and grasses, sedges, mosses, lichens, and berry plants — will eventually be replaced by shrub lands and even boreal forest, scientists forecast.

See Yale 360

But for all the "tipping points" that have been identified, a new mathematical study lends support to a darker, more discouraging train of thought -- that because the climate system is chaotic, with so many moving parts operating on different time scales, and feeding back on one another, its behavior is inherently unpredictable. Abrupt change can come without warning.

See Discovery News

Recent scientific assessments have shown that the world is not on a trajectory that would keep the increase in global temperature below 2 degrees centigrade.

See Dr Nyong, head of gender, climate change and sustainable development unit at the ADB