The tipping point is a point in mathematics where Order ends and chaos begins. Imagine the order is a system that pushes a ball to the top of a hill. when the ball reaches the top it could go either way, it could slide back down the way it came or it could just take a nudge and career down the other side at an exponential rate. Well that is what has happened with the environment. Unfortunately it is beyond control, even if we save all the electricity we can, and abandon petrol/deisel vehicles - even if we adopt a medieval way of life, it will not help, as what was feared is now upon us. That is the viewpoint of many climate change modellers and mathematicians, and other interested scientific bodies. ITS ALL TOO LATE ! Once the ice has melted you cant put it back, once the sea levels rise you cant lower them. The prediction is that we will live in a world much like they did 50 million years ago where it was arid and hot and that will last around 200,000 years - but worryingly it is predicted that in the very near future you will experience a sudden rise of 5 degrees in temperature that will be enough to wipe out over half the population of existing species http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=global-warming-beyond-the-co2 http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/08/arctic-sea-ice-in-death-spiral-second-lowest-on-record.php