Climate Tipping Point ( UPSC Prelims)

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News Context

Warm-water coral reefs have surpassed their thermal tipping point, leading to an irreversible decline.

About climate tipping point

These are critical thresholds within a system that, once surpassed, can result in a substantial transformation of the system's state, often with the understanding that this transformation is irreversible (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)). For example, global warming can trigger a transformation such as a rainforest turning into a dry savannah. Tipping points are interconnected, meaning that surpassing one may hasten the collapse of others, leading to a cascading effect that threatens planetary stability. The tipping points identified by the IPCC include the Amazon rainforest dieback, permafrost collapse, Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) slowdown, Boreal Forest shift, and the risks of Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets collapse.