PBS Terra says 'We Just Crossed Our FIRST Tipping Point… And It’s NOT What You Think'

I haven't posted about climate change since Howtown asks 'Did we just unfreeze a pandemic?' Spooky science for spooky season, a PBS Terra video since 'America's Great Lost Tree Is Finally Returning,' a story of hope for the American Chestnut, and a Weathered video since 'Weathered' explains 'This Is EXACTLY How Much Poorer Climate Change Will Make Every Person on Earth', so it's well past time I returned to those topics and sources. Without any further ado, I 'm sharing We Just Crossed Our FIRST Tipping Point… And It’s NOT What You Think from Weathered on PBS Terra.

Scientists just released the 2025 Global Tipping Points Report. And they say we’ve already crossed our first major tipping point, but it’s not what you think.

From melting ice sheets to collapsing ocean currents, these sudden, irreversible changes could reshape the planet in ways we can’t undo. But what does it really mean to cross a tipping point? How do we know we’ve crossed one? And how close are we to triggering others?

In this episode of Weathered, Maiya May talks with scientist Tim Lenton, who helped popularize the term “tipping point” in a landmark 2008 paper, to uncover which Earth systems are at risk, why they’re so hard to predict, and what crossing a tipping point means for our future.

Unlike passing the other tipping points, like the AMOC, permafrost, West Antarctic ice sheet, and coral reefs, passing the renewable energy tipping point is good news. I wrote about it in DW News asks 'Earth Overshoot Day: What can we do to try live within the planet’s limits?'

[C]onvincing people to be less wasteful, particularly creating less food waste and eating less meat, especially beef, would be helpful. [One] could consider that to be a technology. So is renewable energy. Between the two, it would move Earth Overshoot Day back more than a month. Progress!

Yes, it is, and it's good news I can share with my students. Welcome to blogging as professional development.

That's a wrap for today. Stay tuned for World Toilet Day tomorrow. I have something planned from PBS Eons. Yes, really.