🪸 First Climate Tipping Point Breached

🪸 First Climate Tipping Point Breached

The Earth has officially reached its first tipping point for human-caused climate change. The second Global Tipping Points Report released on October 13, 2025 said warm-water coral reefs are passing their tipping point. Although coral reefs cover only 0.2% of the ocean floor, they are home to at least a quarter of all marine species, support the livelihoods of nearly one billion people, and provide ecosystem services that have been valued at over $2 trillion per year. Widespread coral dieback is taking place and unless global warming is reversed, extensive reefs will be lost. The coral reef tipping point was assessed to be around 1.2C global warming, and the world has spent most of the last two years at 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. This has caused marine heatwaves that have led to severe bleaching impacts on 80% of the world’s coral reefs. A report released in 2022 showed that almost 15% of the planet’s reefs have vanished since 2009. Experts say this is a wake-up call for the world’s governments to deal urgently with the coral reef crisis.

Doyle Rice, USA Today

🌀 Alaskan Villages Become More Vulnerable Due to Climate Change

Alaskan villages like Kipnuk, home to about 970 people along the Bering Sea, are built on permafrost, which is ground that has been frozen in some cases for hundreds or thousands of years. Climate change is heating the Arctic region more rapidly than the rest of the planet, and the permafrost is beginning to thaw. As a result of the melting permafrost, Kipnuk’s key infrastructure is at risk of collapsing into the river whenever it floods. Five months ago, the Trump administration cancelled a $20 million grant intended to protect the community from such extreme flooding. Last week, the remnants of Typhoon Halong caused powerful storm surge and high winds that inundated the village. Homes were swept away, 51 people were rescued, more than 1,000 people remain in shelters, one person was killed, and two people in a nearby village remain missing. Disasters like this highlight the importance of funding to underserved communities facing the brunt of climate change.

Maxine Joselow and Lisa Friedman, The New York Times

📝 Ten Emerging Climate Tech Solutions

According to the Planetary Health Check 2025 by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, seven of the nine planetary boundaries have been breached. Planetary boundaries set the scientific limits within which our natural systems must operate to function fully. Climate change, biosphere integrity, nutrient cycles and human-made materials disrupting natural processes are the most affected, with changes to land systems, freshwater and the oceans not far behind. As a result, the World Economic Forum put together a list of 10 technologies that may help redress the declining health of our planet’s fundamental processes. These technologies include: precision fermentation, green ammonia production, automated food-waste upcycling, methane capture and utilization, green concrete, next-gen bi-directional charging, timely and specific Earth observation, modular geothermal energy, regenerative desalination, and soil health technology convergence.

Helen Burdett, World Economic Forum

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Check out the blogs from September:

• NEW FORECASTWATCH REPORT: Best Places to Live in the U.S. 2025 Edition

• Machine Learning Seasonal Forecasting Capability

• Mini Ocean Robots to Collect Hurricane Data