Tipping Points

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

Thanks to Beth for sending me this fantastic, and very accessible, short video. It's all about tipping points in the earth's climate and how we could very soon pass the point of no return. It is a worrying fact that the climate science set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the UN-based authority on climate science) is, due to the natural conservative nature of scientists, likely to be an underestimate of the effects of manmade greenhouse gas emissions on global temperature. There are a number of so-called "feedback" mechanisms which are very likely to accelerate warming but, due to the uncertain nature of their effects, are not included in the official UN assessments on which policy-makers are making decisions. Another problem is that fact that the IPCC only produces updates every 6 years and the latest report, from 2007, is based on 2005 science, due to the time it takes to assess, review and agree the findings.

There is a Scientific Congress here in Copenhagen this week. The aim is to provide an update on the latest science for policy-makers ahead of this year's UN conference on climate change in the city in December. It will include an update on the latest science relating to these so-called "feedback mechanisms".

Science has moved on a lot since 2005 and it is giving us a very clear message - that man-made climate change is more severe and is happening at a faster rate than we thought.