Europe is plagued by months of drought, gigantic forest fires are raging in North America and there are dramatic floods in Asia. The catastrophic weather events in the summer of 2022, with the many damages, have vividly demonstrated how global warming, currently at +1.1 degrees, is also having an impact in our latitudes. But that is not the end of the story. A study in the journal Science shows that it is not only the weather that is changing, but the entire Earth system with its interrelated physical, chemical, biological and social components. Even the current warming may be enough to trigger a whole series of processes within the Earth system. Once these are set in motion, they accelerate themselves, can get out of control and are irreversible. These are so-called tipping points in climate research. For example, there are signs that the Greenland Ice Sheet is melting, which could cause sea levels to rise by up to 7.2 metres. In West Antarctica, there are strong signals that glaciers have begun to collapse. In the Atlantic, there are warning signs that an important ocean current responsible for rainfall and thus successful harvests is in danger of collapsing. The coral reefs of the tropics, essential for feeding hundreds of millions of people, are dying. And there is also growing evidence that permafrost soils in the north are rapidly thawing, releasing masses of methane and CO2. All these tipping points may already have been reached, writes the Science-Team. 9 tipping points are defined in the study that have global consequences and 6 that are felt regionally. The data show that 5 of these tipping points are already in risky proximity, with 5 more occurring at 1.5 degrees of warming. The Earth may have left its safe climate state beyond 1 degree of global warming, the team concludes. At even higher warming, more collapses will occur, such as that of the glacier in East Antarctica.

The descriptions of the tipping points allow the conclusion that the self-reinforcing processes of the climate system are beyond human control.

Therefore, it is our most urgent task to reduce CO2 emissions and the resulting accelerated global warming. Every tenth of a degree counts.

(To be read in Die Zeit 
N 38 dated 15.9.22, page 36)

We at Park Your Truck are very concerned about these negative developments and believe that everyone can make a difference through their actions, so we want to make a special effort to reduce our CO2 emissions to 0. For this reason we have joined the Climate Pledge. Currently, over 375 companies from all over the world have pledged to achieve climate neutrality 10 years earlier, i.e. in 2040. Park Your Truck is going one step further and has the confidence to achieve climate neutrality as early as 2030. As of today, this goal is our top corporate goal, which we want to achieve with all our might in the coming months and years, because it all depends on each individual. Join us and follow our actions on this website! https://www.theclimatepledge.com/

The Climate Pledge is a commitment to become carbon neutral by 2040 and forms a cross-sector community of businesses and organizations working together to address the climate crisis and solve the carbon reduction challenges facing our economy. The Climate Pledge was co-founded by Amazon and Global Optimism in 2019.
Companies and organizations that sign the Climate Pledge commit to three areas of action:

• Regular measurement and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions
• Implementing decarbonization strategies in line with the Paris Agreement.
  agreement through concrete business changes and innovations,
  including efficiency improvements, renewable energy, material savings and other carbon avoidance strategies.
• Neutralisation of all remaining emissions through additional, quantifiable, real, permanent and socially beneficial offsets to become climate neutral by 2040.