John Gibbons: Are we approaching a social tipping point on the climate emergency?

Our infinite desires are on a collision course with our finite and rapidly declining biosphere

'We are all exposed to hundreds, even thousands of adverts every day, almost all of them urging us to spend, spend, spend, to shop till we drop, fly on a whim and display our social status by the brands we can afford and size of our car.'

In nature, tipping points occur when certain critical thresholds have been crossed and momentum into a new phase becomes unstoppable. Well-known examples of this include the vast ice sheets in Greenland or western Antarctica. While they can withstand some warming, rather like stepping off a cliff, full-scale collapse becomes irreversible beyond a critical point.

The problem for scientists is that in complex systems, these tipping points can be difficult to pinpoint, and are often only fully recognised in hindsight. There are also social tipping points, where dramatic changes in attitude or behaviour occur slowly, then suddenly.