Acceleration of species extinctions, depletion of groundwater, melting of glaciers, space debris, unbearable heat… So many “risky tipping points” which threaten our planet.
This new name takes shape in a report published Wednesday October 25 by the United Nations (UN) and is defined as the threshold from which “the systems on which we rely for our lives and our societies cannot cushion the risks and stop working as we expect.
Little-known risks
In total, the UN counts six tipping points, and warns of the risk of their multiplication “which could destroy the systems on which our lives depend”. In addition to global warming and the disappearance of certain animal species, the report raises other threats, less present in public debate.
Like space debris, which, due to chain collisions, could render the Earth’s orbit, used for meteorological monitoring, unusable. But also the depletion of groundwater, used mainly for agriculture to compensate for the lack of water during, for example, episodes of drought. The report notes in particular that in Saudi Arabia these wells are already dry. For its part, India is gradually approaching the tipping point.
Insurance insecurity
Among the causes identified, unsurprisingly, are greenhouse gas emissions, the prioritization of profits, and the underassessment of environmental risks. But also the inequalities of development and subsistence as well as colonialism, constituting “an expansionist and [marqué par] the desire for power, exploitation and control over a certain area”, which contribute to “environmental degradation”.
Faced with the environmental crisis, the question of the cost of insurance is also on the table. And for good reason, the multiplication of climatic disasters inexorably leads to an increase in their prices, and sometimes even leads to the desertion of insurers from certain areas deemed to be high risk, leaving populations without a safety net.
Need to “reinvent” operating systems
To provide an appropriate response to the climate crisis, the report distinguishes between solutions aimed at avoiding the causes of the problem and those aimed at adapting to inevitable changes. Each of them can fit into the existing system, or seek to transform it.
Installing air conditioners, for example, can be seen as an adaptation solution within the system, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions seeks to transform it, as it targets the cause.
But, for the scientists who conducted the report, most of the responses to the climate crisis simply delay the tipping points, without reinventing the operating systems.