Climate action is urgently needed. CO2 and methane gases are affecting critical systems that support life on our planet. In 2024, the Inter-American Court on Human Rights and the International Court of Justice ruled climate change an existential threat to humanity and ecosystems. The International Court of Justice said countries have a responsibility to do what they can to limit global warming to the critical threshold of 1.5C.
The global warming increase was above 1.5°C for all of 2024. This is what Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary General says about that:
… going above 1.5C has devastating consequences. Some of these devastating consequences are tipping points, be it in the Amazon, be it in Greenland, or western Antarctica or the coral reefs.
A tipping point is a critical threshold leading to irreversible changes in Earth’s climate if crossed. A study in Nature Geoscience Journal looked at four of the largest tipping points on earth. The study found the stability of four tipping points are near critical thresholds: Amazon rain forest, Greenland ice sheet, Atlantic Ocean currents, and South Asian monsoon.
The four tipping points explained
- Amazon rainforest: losing the Amazon rainforest would be disastrous, because we would lose 10% of the world’s biodiversity. The Amazon influences the circulation of air masses and affects rain patterns in South America and North America.
- Greenland ice sheet: Continued melting of the ice sheet and surrounding ocean will cause sea level rise and changes in the salinity of the ocean. Sea level rise will threaten coastal communities. A rise of 22 feet is expected if the entire ice sheet melts. Changes in salinity will have significant negative impacts on the marine ecosystem.
- Atlantic Ocean currents: Atlantic Ocean currents reaching a tipping point would cause severe impacts as early as 2055. The currents form the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), which loops around the Atlantic Ocean to bring heat to the Northern Hemisphere before traveling south again.
- South Asian monsoon: nearly two billion people rely on the monsoon’s rainfall for agriculture, water resources, and economic stability. When the monsoon reaches a tipping point, it would significantly impact global commodity markets, financial systems, and regional stability. A monsoon failure would reshape global food markets, affecting food manufacturers, retailers, and consumers worldwide.
Despite all the warnings, the US government is denying climate crisis and slowing the energy transition as much as possible so fossil fuel companies can continue selling “natural” gas and oil. The government even gave them a $40 billion dollar subsidy this year.
How did this happen? In 1998, major fossil fuel companies created the Global Climate Science Communications Action Plan. The plan was a multimillion-dollar campaign to spread climate denial by flooding the world with false claims that there was no scientific consensus about the reality of climate change. Tactics included buying off independent scientists to spread climate denial, discredit climate science, assure the public that it was safe to burn fossil fuels, and block America’s participation in the international climate treaty, and distribute propaganda to schools. The fossil fuel industry put these tactics into place in the US and Europe.
In 1988, the US was in prime position to dominate the clean energy industry. But because of the actions of fossil fuel companies, China is now the world’s superpower in renewables. World leadership is now passing from the US to China. China is exporting more clean energy than the U.S. is exporting dirty energy. The US sold $80 billion in oil and gas to other countries through July, 2025. China exported $120 billion in green technology over the same period. China is also providing new technology and products to 170 countries to help develop green energy and prepare for increasingly frequent and intense storms, floods and droughts.
Since the US government is failing us in addressing climate crisis, immediate action now needs to take place at the state and local levels as well as by individuals like you and me. Switching to renewable energy and decreasing our energy consumption is urgently needed. That means we have no choice but to change our lifestyles. Perhaps you might like to try this window mounted plug in heat pump, which supplies heat and A/C.
If none of that motivates you to play your part in addressing climate crisis, how about this? Climate change will hurt chocolate, wine and coffee production.
To find out what you can do to help mitigate climate crisis and adapt to the climate changes we are already seeing, contact Transition Town Greater Media.
Glad you finally mentioned lifestyle change. It’s the only thing that will genuinely cut emissions, and it has to be drastic. Drastic doesn’t have to mean worse; it means a thorough reappraisal of what’s important.
You may get your wish soon. Global oil extraction is teetering on the peak of what volume can technically be produced. Depending on which oil industry analyst you follow, we can expect the volume to begin to decline within the next 5 years, perhaps as soon as next year.
This sounds great from a climate perspective, but it will also cause economic desperation. We’ve seen recent domestic and international geo-political economic desperation lately, and it isn’t pretty. The new question is how to de-escalate geo-political and intra-national tensions in the face of a shrinking pie. Neither Ukraine nor Gaza indicate any encouragement on that front. Meanwhile, lifestyle change will be thrust upon us, far less comfortably than if we had chosen and planned for it.