Scientists, assisted with millions in government funding, are about to embark on a mission to set up an “early warning system” for two so-called climate change ‘tipping points’: critical thresholds which, if breached, could plunge Britain and much of the world into a new reality of extreme weather and food insecurity.
The £81 million, multi-year scheme could deploy robots — dubbed WALL-E by some experts, in honor of Pixar’s robotic environmental hero — to monitor the impact of climate change in the Atlantic Ocean and the Arctic. The cash would also be used for supercomputer models of historic climate data.
It will all be led by the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), an independent body funded by the government and founded at the instigation of former Downing Street adviser Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s top aide until he was forced out of Downing Street in a swirl of ignominy in 2020.
ARIA has a remit to carry out research considered “too speculative, too hard, or too interdisciplinary to pursue elsewhere,” according to its own mission statement.
This includes work on prospective climate disasters. “It is incumbent on governments to think the unthinkable about what might happen,” said Laurie Laybourn, a researcher on climate and security at the Institute for Public Policy Research, a think tank.
Climate monitor
Full details of the project will be announced in early 2025.