AI could provide 'early warning system' for catastrophic climate tipping points

A new artificial intelligence system could assess tipping points in the world's ecosystems, and act as an early warning system to help stop "runaway climate change", researchers have said. Climate tipping points are a particular threat to life on Earth, as when they are reached, they can set off chain reactions of climate-altering processes, supercharging global heating and rapidly exacerbating the existing climate crisis. Examples include the melting of the Arctic permafrost, which could release massive amounts of the potent greenhouse gas methane, which would generate further rapid heating; the breakdown of ocean current systems, which would cause almost immediate major changes to global weather patterns; and ice sheet disintegration, which could lead to rapid sea-level rises. Using a "deep-learning" algorithm, the researchers examined thresholds beyond which rapid or irreversible change happens in a system. Chris Bauch, professor of applied mathematics at the University of Waterloo ...