Dave Delman The idea of a "tipping point" probably originated with Hegel, as follows: In his book Science of Logic, Georg Friedrich Hegel remarked: “It is said that there are no sudden changes in nature, and the common view has it that when we speak of a growth or a destruction, we always imagine a gradual growth or disappearance. Yet we have seen cases in which the alteration of existence involves not only a transition from one proportion to another, but also a transition, by a sudden leap, into a … qualitatively different thing; an interruption of a gradual process, differing qualitatively from the preceding, the former state”. The example of liquid water turning into gaseous steam at 100C is often cited, but the examples are everywhere to be found, in the physical world and everywhere else including biology and human affairs. Re the environment, those extra CO2 emissions from the additional tin mining due to the RoHS ban on leaded solder may be the tipping point that will lead to the inundation of Brussels and thereby sink the ban on lead in solder. Harvey Miller Oh, by the way, if you look at the New Yorker, you will find Malcolm Gladwell's byline under many excellent contributions. --- MA/NY DDave <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Hi Again DavidS, Brian, EnviroNetrs, > > David Thanks, I checked his bio and his web site. Malcom is in the > Journalist > profession and is quite probably the source since journalists read each > others > work. > > Per his definition, I would agree that politically in the UK and in the > US we > might have reached a temporary "tipping point" for abrupt political > action. > Usually this means a band aide approach and lots of rhetoric with long > periods > of do-nothing. > > Brian also thanks for the piece about oceans. If I find the article > about some > ocean organism that might have been involved in a huge climate change I > will > post it. Right now I couldn't find the particular article. > > > Yours in Engineering, Dave >