Action Plan

Many experts agree, there is not enough evidence to suggest that Earth has already surpassed a climate tipping point.

"Barnosky, a paleobiologist at the University of California, and more than 20 other experts in paleontology, ecology, geology, population biology and complex systems (claim)... there is a pressing need for better models and observations to help anticipate future changes and determine how close the planet is to a global tipping point (Morello 2012)."

Figure 2 is a visual representation explaining how increased certainty about climate tipping points may lead to collective action that can prevent the reaching of a climate point (Barrett & Dannenberg 2014).

Fig. 3

It is vital to fund research on climate tipping points in order to determine how close Earth is from reaching one. The more certain the findings are, the more likely there is to be collective efforts towards reaching international climate mitigation policy.

The Environmental Defense Fund is in agreement that the climate tipping point has not yet been reached and that taking certain actions can "(stop) once and for all the centuries-long rise in global greenhouse gas emissions and seeing them peak, level off and begin to decline within the next five years" (Krupp 2015). This proposed plan involves:

improving energy efficiency in China, the U.S. & Europe
Reducing methane emissions
Halting deforestation in the Amazon
Tackling the market failure