Current climate policies carry a significant risk of triggering critical tipping points in the Earth system, even if global temperatures later fall below 1.5°C after a temporary exceedance. A new study published in Nature Communications suggests that these risks can be mitigated if the temperature rise is quickly reversed. Human-induced climate change can destabilize large-scale components of the Earth system, known as tilting features, such as ice sheets, ocean circulation patterns, and key global biospheres. (Andrei Ionescu, more at earth.com)