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Network analysis

Connected climate tipping elements

Nature Climate Change volume 13, pages 15–16 (2023)Cite this article

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Tipping elements are regions that are vulnerable to climate change and capable of sudden drastic changes. Now research establishes long-distance linkages between tipping elements, with the network analysis offering insights into their interactions on a global scale.

Nowadays, climatologists are well familiar with the Hopf bifurcation (or rather, Poincaré–Andronov–Hopf bifurcation) observed in climatic variables. In the 1960s–1970s, an intuitive idea of a bifurcation appeared in social sciences as the term ‘tipping point’, mentioned by many sociologists, such as Everett Rogers, Morton Grodzins, Thomas Schelling and others. Their understanding of tipping was in the context of adding a small amount of something to a balanced system until it suddenly topples, or tips. Bearing in mind that they were talking about spread of innovations in a social system, at that time there were no analytical models to link the idea of social tipping with the mathematical works of Poincaré.

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  1. Data Science Department, National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, UK

    Valerie N. Livina

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  1. Valerie N. Livina
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Correspondence to Valerie N. Livina.

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The author declares no competing interests.

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Livina, V.N. Connected climate tipping elements. Nat. Clim. Chang. 13, 15–16 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01573-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01573-5

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