Re: Earth may be near tipping point
One possibility that rarely seems to be discussed in these climate change studies is how the 'peak oil' problem impacts climate change.
I mean, around half of the fossil fuel we can reasonably access is now consumed, which means around half of the additional co2 we can produce has already been produced (caveat: we can put more in the atmostphere by deforestation).
So it must be possible to calculate a maximum CO2 level in the atmostphere, the amount that is there when we have consumed all fossil fuels and hammered the worlds forests (and when all the Co2 sinks like the oceans are full).
If that is possible to calculate, then we should also, through our understanding of the greenhouse effect also be able to estimate what that climate would look like - I have never seen this done though, maybe I am missing something.
I suppose part of the problem is that, once you get to a certain temp increase, other factors come in, melting ice reflecting less solar energy away, and you get some runaway effects.
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