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Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Feedback and Tipping Points in Climate Change

Here is an article entitled "Tipping Elements in the Earth's Climate System" from the National Academy of Sciences

The article presents research supporting the proposition that:

'Human activities may have the potential to push components of the Earth system past critical states into qualitatively different modes of operation, implying large-scale impacts on human and ecological systems. Examples that have received recent attention include the potential collapse of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation (THC), dieback of the Amazon rainforest, and decay of the Greenland ice sheet. Such phenomena have been described as “tipping points” following the popular notion that, at a particular moment in time, a small change can have large, long-term consequences for a system, i.e., “little things can make a big difference”.'


For a short video explaining this concept see here:

Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip from Leo Murray on Vimeo.



If you would like to read the script and check the research behind the conclusions in this video, go here.

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