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

and pretty soon became mesmerised by the intricate patterns formed by layers of snow and rivulets of melting ice on the roadside - and felt inspired to record these intricate ice-scapes.

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These small wintry scenes somehow conjured some wider issues pertaining to global warming and the concept of tipping points that I had recently been reading about in Jason Hickel's brilliant 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, sprung to mind. 

 

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)​