Where’s the Tip?

When you live on the edge, which way is forward?

This week began with the noonish Monday opening of a long-awaited and oversold event. Nope. Not Glastonbury. It was the 4-day Tipping Points conference at the University of Exeter, just a few miles up the A38 from Totnes. More than 500 participants bypassed the adjacent Starbucks to cram into The Forum for brunch. The first plenary, standing room only, introduced the theme of the week: Earth System Tipping Points and Risks. Lead-off speakers came from some of the most distinguished climate think tanks in the world. Noticeably absent: any U.S. reps. There were no speakers from NOAA, NASA, DOE, USDA, EPA, Goddard, Woods Hole, C2ES, WRI, UCS, RFF or USGCRP. Many career scientists at those places no longer had jobs. A notable exception: Rocky Mountain Institute, and more on them later.

This is what you get when you go to the US Global Change Research Program website. Launched in the 1990s, it is Congressionally mandated to provide all quadrennial National Climate Assessments for free download

The breakout rooms were tiny (capacities: 20–75) compared to what was required, but the doomer porn exceeded expectations: record heatwaves, wildfires, and permafrost collapse; boreal and tropical forest losses to tundra and savanna; Greenland and Antarctic calfing; 100…