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Environment & Climate vocabulary · Climate Change and Climate Science

Tipping point

Meaning in environment & climate, with examples

/ˈtɪpɪŋ pɔɪnt/nounCommon term

In environment & climate, tipping point means: A critical threshold in the climate system beyond which a change, such as ice sheet collapse or forest dieback, becomes self-reinforcing and very hard or impossible to reverse.

In Turkish: devrilme noktası, kırılma noktası

How it is used

Used in climate science and the media: climate tipping points, cross a tipping point, reach a tipping point. Often discussed examples are the Greenland ice sheet, the Amazon rainforest, permafrost thaw and coral reefs. In business English a tipping point can also be a positive moment when a new technology suddenly spreads.

Example sentences

  1. Scientists warn that warm-water coral reefs may already be past a tipping point.

  2. Cheaper batteries could push electric trucks past a market tipping point.

Common collocations

  • climate tipping points
  • cross a tipping point
  • reach a tipping point
  • irreversible change
  • global warmingThe rise in the Earth's average surface temperature since the late 1800s, caused mainly by greenhouse gases released by human activities.
  • IPCCShort for Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: the UN body that assesses and summarizes the science on climate change, its impacts and possible responses.
  • ocean acidificationThe gradual drop in the pH of seawater as oceans absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which makes it harder for corals, shellfish and plankton to build shells and skeletons.
  • sea level riseThe increase in the average level of the world's oceans, caused mainly by melting glaciers and ice sheets and by seawater expanding as it warms.

More terms: Climate Change and Climate Science

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