PBS Terra asks 'Is This the ABSOLUTE Worst Case Tipping Point?'

I had other plans for today's post, but then my wife and I watched Weathered on PBS Terra asking Is This the ABSOLUTE Worst Case Tipping Point?*

What happens when a planet crosses a climate tipping point it can’t recover from? Venus may hold the answer.

Scientists think Venus once had oceans, water, and a climate that may have resembled early Earth. But something pushed the planet past a threshold. Water evaporated, greenhouse warming spiraled, and Venus became the hottest planet in our solar system.

So what was that tipping point? And could anything like it happen on Earth?

In this episode of Weathered, Maiya May explores the science behind runaway greenhouse effects, ancient volcanic carbon releases, and one of the most surprising climate wildcards scientists have discovered: the potential collapse of stratocumulus clouds.

From crocodiles in the Arctic during past hothouse climates to cutting-edge models of cloud loss under extreme CO2 levels, this episode investigates what keeps Earth’s climate stable and what could push it toward irreversible change.

Earth isn’t turning into Venus anytime soon. But Venus reveals something more important: what happens when a planet loses its brakes.

My wife and I found this fascinating because we're both scientists who are concerned about climate change and interested in space. While my wife is a psychologist who uses the experimental method, I'm a paleontologist who uses the comparative method and modeling. That was enough to get me to blog about this video today, since it ticked off so many of my boxes.

One of those boxes is that it referred back to PBS Terra warns 'There's Something MUCH Bigger Than Yellowstone. And It Will Happen Again.' I enjoyed it except the way Maiya May presented it seemed to imply that the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) was associated with the eruption of the Columbia River Basalts. That happened during the Miocene, not the terminal Paleocene and earliest Eocene. The original video made it clear that the PETM is contemporaneous with the North Atlantic Igneous Province, just in case my readers were as confused as I was.

That was something I learned back in November. The new fact I learned today was about how stratocumulus clouds, which form at the top of the marine layer, work and what the model predicts would happen when carbon dioxide levels go about 1200 ppm. That makes today a good day, as any day I learn something new is a good day.

This wraps up today's evergreen educational entry. Stay tuned for an entertainment entry I will share next month. Randy Rainbow just uploaded a new song!

*I was planning on writing this week's version of Lydic, Meyers, Kimmel, and Colbert take closer looks at the 'Melania' documentary and other news, but the comedians didn't have a common theme to their monologues and my wife found a shinier object. Besides, Saturday Night Live will cover the week's news tomorrow night, so I'm not worried about missing anything.