Does Mother Nature have a plan to avert Terminal Climate Shock?
Not all tipping elements are bad.
After years of drought, last winter a mind-boggling 51 atmospheric rivers dumped rain and snow on California. Those rivers then shifted to Florida, causing multiple flooding events, the worst of which was earlier this month. The East and Northeast were not spared, with significant floods in December and January. Montpelier Vermont got eight inches (20.3 cm) in 24 hours. Then Texas and Louisiana experienced downpours that dropped a month’s rain in a day. After the rain broke records in Florida, New York City and Philadelphia, it slammed the mid-continent last week, sweeping away towns in Minnesota, Iowa and South Dakota. At this writing, the situation in Spencer and North Sioux City remains critical with more rain forecast.
The NOAA Climate Prediction Center predicts that up to 13 hurricanes could develop in the Atlantic Ocean this year, at least four of which could be major. For coastal and peninsular residents, that means more rain.
After watching Earth climate systems blow past so many threshold markers for tipping elements in 2023 and 2024, many scientists have been openly expressing worries about our chances of arresting it. Some hold out hope that a shift from the El Niño cycle to La Niña in 2025 (by no means guaranteed) will…