Identifying Tipping Elements in the Climate System

This map highlights potential policy-relevant tipping elements in the climate system in relation to global population density. Subsystems indicated could exhibit threshold-type behaviour in response to anthropogenic climate forcing. They could be triggered this century and would undergo a qualitative change within this millennium. See 'Tipping Elements in the Earth's climate system' published by PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA) 2007.