How could positive tipping points accelerate climate action? [Video]

October 7, 2022 — Editor’s note: This story is part of the SoJo Exchange from the Solutions Journalism Network, a nonprofit organization dedicated to rigorous reporting about responses to social problems. It is republished from Context courtesy of the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly.

Scientists believe dangerous climate change “tipping points” are approaching — from surging sea levels as polar ice melts to fast-spiking temperatures as methane escapes thawing permafrost.

A study published in September in the journal Science found that four dangerous planetary tipping points are likely if global warming reaches more than 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) above preindustrial temperatures.

That limit —which governments are striving to keep to under the 2015 Paris Agreement — could be passed within a decade, scientists have warned.

Tipping points happen when a small change — such as an incremental increase in global temperature — sparks a …