Exploring Tipping Points in the Human-Climate System

• In Event: 476 - Section on Environment and Technology Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 18. Climate Change and Disasters

Abstract

Tipping points in the human-climate system, such as rapid sea-level rise driven by an ice sheet collapsing, have currently garnered much media and research attention for their potentially catastrophic impacts. Despite the term tipping point historically emerging from the social sciences, social science research on climate relevant social tipping points has been surprisingly scant. In this paper, we discuss what is known about social tipping points and identify four potential tipping points in the human-climate system: 1) public opinion and policy change, 2) technology adoption for adaptation or mitigation, 3) migration, and 4) conflict. We argue that further theorizing and empirically studying these phenomena from a social tipping points perspective can advance a science of social tipping points beyond metaphor and greatly improve our understanding of non-linear human-climate dynamics.

Author

• Rachael Leah Shwom, Rutgers University