If we breach climate tipping points, climate change will continue even if we do reach net zero.

A letter to the Sheffield Star.

Dear Editor

In Friday’s Star, you highlighted a quote from Baroness Brown, who chairs the Climate Change Committee’s adaptation work. She said, “It gets worse from here. Until we get to Net Zero, things go on getting worse.”

Unfortunately, they may carry on getting far worse after we reach Net Zero. 

We are dangerously close to climate tipping points, and if these are breached, our planet will no longer be a safe home for us. For instance, if the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation collapses, our weather will be like the Ice Age in winter and extremely hot in summer, making it impossible to grow crops. Or if giant ice sheets collapse in the Arctic or Antarctic, sea levels will rise and likely flood most of our best agricultural land. Or when areas of the tundra melt, large emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane will be released, further increasing climate change.

Governments must stop dilly-dallying and get on a war footing to end our addiction to fossil fuels. They should be showing the Climate Emergency Briefing film to the public so everyone understands the extreme threats we face. Baroness Brown is right about one thing: this isn’t the new normal. Things will continue to get worse, so we need massive investment in adaptation so we can cope better with extreme heat, floods, fires, droughts, and storms. 

As we have watched awful fires scorch many of our green spaces this week, it gives me no pleasure to say, “I told you this would happen”. And still, the Fire Brigade lacks the resources needed to adequately cope with so many fires. We don’t even have a single firefighting plane in this country. 

Instead of leading on adaptation to keep us safe, Andy Burnham is expanding airports and debating opening yet more climate-changing oil and gas fields in the North Sea. Surely this record-breaking summer should be a wake-up call for him?

Yours sincerely

Graham Wroe