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by Andrew Glikson The concept of a global climate tipping point/s implies a confluence of climate change processes in several parts of the world where regional climate changes can combine as a runaway shifts to a new climate state. Conversely the shift of climate zones can constitute the underlying factor that triggers extreme weather events which culminate in tipping points. These shifts include the expansion of the tropics, tropical cyclones, mid-latitude storms and weakening of boundaries of the polar vortex, allowing breach of air masses of contrasting temperatures through the jet stream polar boundary, with ensuing snow storms and heatwaves. Figure 1.  Climate tipping points ( McSweeney 2020 ) The migration of climate zones toward the poles appears to constitute a major factor in triggering tipping points in the Earth system (Figures 1 and 2), including (from north to south): permafrost loss  expansion of the Boreal forest at the expense of the tundra disintegration of ...

The fatal road to +4°Celsius Extreme GHG and T°C rise rates exceed climate tipping thresholds Andrew Glikson Precis Global CO₂ rise and warming rates have reached a large factor to an order of magnitude higher than those of the past geological and mass extinction events, with major implications for the shift in climate zones and the nature and speed of current extreme weather events. Given the abrupt change in state of the atmosphere-ocean-cryosphere-land system, accelerating since the mid-20ᵗʰ century, the terms climate change and global warming no longer reflect the nature of the climate extremes consequent on this shift. Further to NASA’s reported mean land-ocean temperature rise to +1.18°C for March 2020, relative to the 1951-1980 baseline, large parts of the continents, including Siberia, central Asia, Canada, parts of west Africa, eastern South America and Australia are warming toward mean temperatures of +2°C and higher. The rate exceeds that of the Last Glacial Termination (L...

Tipping points are abrupt climate changes that typically occur as self-reinforcing feedback loops start to kick in. Ten tipping points look set to hit the Arctic hard. Such tipping points can coincide and they are in many ways interrelated, making that the danger is compounded by the domino effect of tipping points hitting one another. 1. El Niño Above image shows March 2020 temperature anomalies, featuring very high temperature anomalies over Russia and over the ESAS, the East Siberian Arctic Shelf. Global warming is a catastrophic development and El Niño is global warming on steroids. As the Atlantic Ocean heats up along the path of the Gulf Stream, huge amounts of hot water get carried toward the Arctic Ocean, as illustrated by above image Current conditions still are El Niño-neutral.  Since the temperature rise is amplified in the Arctic, a strong El Niño later in 2020 can hit the Arctic particularly hard, which can act as a catalyst that triggers further tipping points to get ...