As COP26 in Glasgow comes to a close, the realities of present and future damage to our environment may become clearer.  However, the fragile links between various climatic events and disastrous outcomes may be hidden.

We see the climate system changing rapidly and irreversibly, disrupting lives today and for generations to come. As the climate passes crucial “tipping points”, these changes intensify and make it harder to stabilize our environment. Understanding the consequences of climate change for lives and livelihoods requires us to engage with long-term consequences, deep uncertainty, and risk. An economic perspective on climate change and tipping points reveals new challenges of inequality and climate justice. Climate change is producing winners and losers in the near term, and a global perspective and urgent action is needed to reduce the impacts we will all feel in the future.

Dr James Rising is an interdisciplinary modeler, studying the feedback between environmental and human systems, and focusing on the impacts of climate change and the water-energy-food nexus.

Prior to joining the School of Marine Science & Policy, University of Delaware, James held postdoctoral positions at the Energy & Resources Group at UC Berkeley and the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago.  He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University’s program in Sustainable Development and taught at MIT’s Experimental Study Group and Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering.  Dr Rising has also had a career as a software developer, working on audio and video processing, social networks, and artificial intelligence.