OCEAN: Tipping Elements, Irreversibility, and Abrupt Change

11 February 2022 13:30-15:00 CET

Ocean Systems & AMOC

AIMES, Earth Commission, Future Earth, and the WCRP Safe Landing Climates Lighthouse Activity hosted this fifth webinar in a series that aims to advance the knowledge about tipping elements, irreversibility, and abrupt changes in the Earth system. This novel event included presentations on ocean tipping points from world-leading researchers (MIRO board).

Presentations

Ocean tipping points - an overview – Christoph Heinze
Recent insights on AMOC – Stefan Rahmstorf
Q&A/Discussion

Moderated by Helene Hewitt (Mert Office Hadley Centre) and Didier Swingedouw (University of Bordeaux) moderated the event.

The event recording is provided below.

Back to overview of the full series.

AMOC - Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation

All you need to know

This event is part of a series of online discussions aims to advance the knowledge about tipping elements, irreversibility, and abrupt changes in the Earth system. It supports efforts to increase consistency in treatment of tipping elements in the scientific community, develop a research agenda, and design joint experiments and ideas for a Tipping Element Model Intercomparison Project (TipMip).

This discussion series is a joint activity of the Analysis, Integration, and Modeling of the Earth System (AIMES) global research project of Future Earth, the Earth Commission Working Group 1 Earth and Human Systems Intercomparison Modelling Project (EHSMIP) under the Global Commons Alliance and the Safe Landing Climates Lighthouse Activity of World Climate Research Program (WCRP).

Speakers to be announced

Prof. Christoph Heinze
Geophysical Institute and Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, University of Bergen

Prof. Heinze's interest lie in modelling of marine biogeochemical cycles, quantifications of the global carbon cycle, simulation and interpretation of the climatic sediment record, feedbacks between biogeochemistry and climate and ocean tipping points. He served as lead author for IPCC AR4/WG1 and as review editor for IPCC AR5/WG1. Heinze is member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters since 2019.

Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf
University of Potsdam, Institute of Physics and Astronomy; Head of Earth System Analysis, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research

Prof. Rahmstorf's work focuses on the role of the oceans in climate change. Prof. Rahmstorf has been teaching Physics of the Oceans as a professor at Potsdam University since 2000. Rahmstorf is a member of the Academia Europaea and served from 2004-2013 in the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU). He was also one of the lead authors of the 4th Assessment Report of the IPCC. In 2007 he became an Honorary Fellow of the University of Wales and in 2010 a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union. In 2017 he was the first scientist outside the US to be awarded the Climate Communication Prize of the American Geophysical Union.

Organized by

Analysis, Integration, and Modeling of the Earth System (AIMES)

The Analysis, Integration, and Modeling of the Earth System (AIMES) project is an international network of Earth system scientists and scholars that seek to develop innovative, interdisciplinary ways to understand the complexity of the natural world and its interactions with human activities. AIMES is a global research project of Future Earth.

WCRP Safe Landing Climates Lighthouse Activity

The Safe Landing Climates Lighthouse Activity is an exploration of the routes to “safe landing” spaces for human and natural systems. It will explore future pathways that avoid dangerous climate change while at the same time contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including those of climate action, zero hunger, clean water and sanitation, good health and well-being, affordable and clean energy, and healthy ecosystems above and below water. The relevant time scale is multi-decadal to millennial.

Earth Commission

The Earth Commission is a major scientific assessment, hosted by Future Earth, to define a safe and just corridor for people and planet. The Commission will inform the creation of science-based targets, the “1.5-degree equivalents”, to help maintain and protect critical global commons – our shared climate, land, biodiversity, freshwater, atmosphere and oceans. The Earth Commission is an international team of leading natural and social scientists and five working groups of additional experts. It forms the scientific cornerstone of the Global Commons Alliance.

World Climate Research Programme

The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) leads the way in addressing frontier scientific questions related to the coupled climate system — questions that are too large and too complex to be tackled by a single nation, agency or scientific discipline. Through international science coordination and partnerships, WCRP contributes to advancing our understanding of the multi-scale dynamic interactions between natural and social systems that affect climate.

Future Earth

Future Earth is a global network of scientists, researchers, and innovators collaborating for a more sustainable planet. Future Earth initiates and supports international collaboration between researchers and stakeholders to identify and generate the integrated knowledge needed for successful transformations towards societies that provide good and fair lives for all within a stable and resilient Earth system. Future Earth is the host of the Earth Commission.