KATY McGAHAN
 

 

A short meditation on the concept of climate tipping points inspired by a walk around my local area in the aftermath of a snowstorm in February 2025.

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After having being snowed in for over a week, I set out on a walk around my local area.

Pretty soon I became mesmerised by the intricate patterns formed by layers of snow and rivulets of melting ice that had collected on the roadside and felt inspired to record these intricate fast-changing ice-scapes.

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These small wintry scenes somehow conjured wider issues pertaining to global warming and the concept of tipping points that I had recently been reading about in Jason Hickel's book "Less is More". In particular, his reference to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which sets out the stark truths about the irreversibility of climate tipping points. 

 

Climate tipping points are conditions beyond which changes in a part of the climate system become self-perpetuating. These changes may lead to abrupt, irreversible, and dangerous impacts with serious implications for humanity.  Even the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to well below 2°C and preferably 1.5°C is not safe. Currently the world is heading toward 2 to 3°C of global warming.

 

(From a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, published in the Science Journal 9 Sep 2022 Vol 377, Issue 6611)​