The central theme of Fred Pearce’s excellent book on climate change, With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change, is that nature doesn’t do gradual climate change of the magnitude we are facing. As tipping points are reached, change accelerates and occurs quite violently. The indicators are worrying. Glaciers are retreating faster than anyone thought possible; carbon absorption by the biosphere appears to be slowing; CO2 levels in the atmosphere are rising faster than anticipated.

Now, this disturbing news. After the calving of a large chunk of ice today, an ice shelf of 14,500 square kilometres is in danger of being lost in the West Antarctic. “This is happening twice as fast as we expected,” one scientist is quoted as saying.

Corvin is an activist and writer based in Toronto. Currently he is working on the Environmental Justice Organizing Initiative to help build an organized movement on climate change rooted in a class, race, anti-colonial, and gender analysis. Read other posts by Corvin Russell.