A Note from our Chapter Chair
Susan Eastwood
August 2025
Greetings!
Thinking of adding renewables or energy efficient upgrades? Time is of the essence!
You may be wondering how the recent “One Big, Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA)” has changed Federal tax credits for home improvements like adding solar panels or heat pumps, or improving energy efficiency. Or it may help to know when the tax credits for electric vehicles and chargers will vanish. Clean-energy tax credit changes under the One Big, Beautiful Bill has a table that summarizes these changes, and I hope it helps you to make plans in a timely way!
Tipping points can fall both ways!
I am deeply saddened by the news of the wildfires on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. The long drought, along with above-average temperatures and sudden, dry winds, were perfect conditions for the out-of-control wildfires that have devastated thousands of acres of forest and the beautiful, old lodge where my husband and I spent our honeymoon, exploring the national park and wondering at the Milky Way, so clear in the dark night skies. This is one of many climate change-related disasters we have witnessed this summer, from floods in Texas to toxic wildfire smoke spreading from Canada. The rising amount of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere caused by human activity results in a warmer planet, and this creates changes in our weather patterns, higher temperatures in the air and the oceans, melting glaciers in the Arctic, and changing wind and ocean currents. Climate change also leads to more intense storms in some locations or in other places less precipitation, to the point that rivers dry up and there is no snow pack to provide enough water for agriculture and cities that depend on a steady water supply.
Many have wondered how long climate change can continue before it can’t be reversed. Scientists have modeled our future, and the results are frightening: We are close to the point of no return. What can we do?
We have all heard about tipping points. Professor Tim Lenton, Director of the Global Systems Institute at the University of Exeter, U.K., a leading expert, defines tipping points as “when small planetary shifts combine to cross a critical threshold, triggering irreversible change.” One example is the loss of Arctic sea ice, which will lead to a rise in sea level, heating of the oceans, changes in the currents and gyres, and loss of marine life, affecting our lives in disastrous ways. At the tipping point, changes accelerate exponentially, and the impacts interact throughout the ecosystem with a domino effect.
Image: Glacial melts Image by Markus Kammermann from Pixabay
Major tipping points likely to be crossed this century because of human activity are:
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Greenland ice sheet shrinking
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Permafrost thawing
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Ocean circulation and temperature (AMOC) changing
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Monsoons more frequent
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Amazon rainforests disappearing
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Antarctic ice sheets shrinking
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Coral reefs dying off
Dr. Lenton sounds the alarm on climate tipping points, urging that we stop using fossil fuels at a rate five times faster than we are today. These views are echoed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and hundreds of scientists.
Yet he is optimistic that we can still mitigate the worst impacts of the climate crisis.
The Global Tipping Points Report, 2023, University of Exeter’s Global Systems Institute, is the work of 200 researchers from 90 organizations and 26 countries. They agree that there are positive tipping points, “super leverage points,” that, if done well and soon, can save the planet.
Positive tipping points are “major changes in society that tip the balance towards exponential decarbonization.”
The key positive tipping points will be:
Dr. Lenton’s work on positive tipping points has given me hope and may help us focus our work on the most impactful areas. We don’t have much time to avoid the worst climate chaos, but we must do all we can!
Learn more:
Special Report: Global Warming of 1.5 ºC, Chapter 3, IPCC, Impacts of 1.5ºC global warming on natural and human systems
Climate crisis: How positive tipping points could save the planet and How 3 positive tipping points could stabilize our climate World Economic Forum
The Tipping Points of Climate Change: How Will Our World Change? Earth.org
Global Tipping Points Report Summary, 2023, Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter
Global Tipping Points resources, Global Systems Institute, University of Exeter
New study identifies ‘positive tipping points’ that can be leveraged to prevent the collapse of the Earth system, Earth Commission
Susan Eastwood is Chapter Chair of Sierra Club Connecticut.
