Tipping Points Map

created by John Schellnhuber

The map shows regions throughout the world that Professor Schellnhuber has identified as places where the balance of particular systems (such as ice sheets, ocean currents and tropical forests) has reached the critical point at which potentially irreversible change, such as the melting of part of the Antarctic, is imminent.

The 12 'Tipping Points' are:

• Sahara desert
• Amazon forest
• Ozone hole
• Greenland ice sheet
• Tibetan plateau
• Salinity valves
• North Atlantic current
• El Niño
• West Antarctic ice sheet
• Methane clathrates
• The monsoon
• The Atlantic circumpolar current

For more info:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/feature/story/0,,1326273,00.html