Early warning system for climate tipping points given £81m kickstart

An ambitious attempt to develop an early warning system for climate tipping points will combine fleets of drones, cosmic ray detection and the patterns of plankton blooms with artificial intelligence and the most detailed computer models to date.

The UK’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria), which backs high-risk, high-reward projects, has awarded £81m to 27 teams. The quest is to find signals that forewarn of the greatest climate catastrophes the climate crisis could trigger. Tipping points occur when global temperature is pushed beyond a threshold, leading to unstoppable changes in the climate system.

Cover photo:  One tipping point thought to be at very high risk of being triggered is the collapse of the Greenland ice sheet, which would lead to a huge rise in sea levels. Photograph: Jamie Holte/The University of Edinburgh/PA