Tipping Point of Temperature
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-14/as-trump-heads-to-washington-global-warming-nears-tipping-point
In class we defined a tipping point in terms of products and services, stating it to be a point or value which determines if the population using the product or services will increase.
In this article, the tipping point they refer to is the temperature. According to the UN and scientists, the world is getting steadily closer and closer to the temperature scientists previously determined to be the point of no return. And because of this, we are seeing an increase in the occurrence and the extremity of extreme events such as floods and heatwaves. Once we pass the threshold, there will be an upwards pressure on the amount of other extreme events, a pressure that the human race really has no power to stop.
Temperatures now are 1.2 degrees higher than from the 1800s, and less than 1 degree away from the tipping point. This will lead to floods, droughts, storms, etc in frequencies higher than ever. This also places many countries in danger, since most are not prepared to take measures in case of such incidents. Islands are also in danger of disappearing.
Now with Donald Trump as the President Elect as well as Mike Pence, both people who do not believe in the existence of global warming, we may be approaching the tipping point even more quickly, especially as Trump and Pence may undo all of the clean energy initiates Obama had created in his time in office.
Republicans have also stated intentions to pull the United States from the Paris climate agreement which scientists have supported as one of the only ways to keeps us from breaking the fragile 2 degrees we have before we hit the tipping point. This is problematic since the agreement had been one of the first that major polluting nations have accepted willfully.