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Have humanity driven the climate system beyond the tipping point beyond which preventing catastrophic climate chaos is no longer a viable option?

Have emergent catastrophic climate chaos, as evidenced in US wildfires and high temperature records falling like bowling pins, created a tipping point in American public opinion that might enable a movement toward actual government action toward change?

Consider those in reading this guest post from JamesS.

The Tipping Point wikipedia.org

Gladwell defines a tipping point as “the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point.”[1] The book seeks to explain and describe the “mysterious” sociological changes that mark everyday life. As Gladwell states, “Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread like viruses do.”[2]

tip-ping point:

“the point at which a series of small changes or incidents becomes significant enough to cause a larger, more important change.”

US science official says more extreme events convincing many Americans climate change is real (Associated Press, CANBERRA, Australia — July 6, 2012)

Many Americans had previously seen climate change as a “nebulous concept” removed from them in time and geography, said National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrationchief Jane Lubchenco.“Many people around the world are beginning to appreciate that climate change is under way, that it’s having consequences that are playing out in real time and, in the United States at least, we are seeing more and more examples of extreme weather and extreme climate-related events,” Lubchenco told a university forum in the Australian capital of Canberra.

Obama official: US climate views shifting amid wild weather by Ben Geman, theHill.com — July 6, 2012

[…]
She [Jane Lubchenco] is the second Obama administration official to weigh in this week on the nexus between the violent U.S. weather and climate change.Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano linked climate change with the wildfires hitting Colorado.

Napolitano said “there’s a pattern here” as she noted the summer wildfires as well as the East Coast heat wave and the high-velocity winds that whipped through the mid-Atlantic late last week.
[…]

and global patterns generally ignore international borders …

[Image Source:  englishrussia.com — wildfires-in-russia]
Napolitano on weird weather and climate change: ‘There’s a pattern here’ by Zack Colman, theHill.com — July 5, 2012

[…]
But then she [Janet Napolitano] explained her view, which seemed to make a connection between climate change and the weather events.“You have to look at climate change over a period of years, not just one summer,” Napolitano said. “You could always have one abnormal summer. But when you see one after another after another then you can see, yeah, there’s a pattern here.”

[…] Napolitano said the federal government is adapting.

“I think that we are preparing. We understand and we are seeing the changing weather patterns. We are seeing right now in what already has been a difficult summer,” Napolitano said.

“So yes, we incorporate some of that into our planning,” Napolitano said. “What do we need? Do techniques need to change?  Tactics need to change?  This is not a static universe that we live in.”

[Image Source:  edublogs.org — Web 2.0 Tipping Point For Education]

How many degrees, does a “changing pattern,” take? NOAA:  So far, 2012 is the warmest year on record in US The Associated Press — June 08, 2012

[…]
March, April and May in the Lower 48 states beat the oldest spring temperature recordby a full 2 degrees. The three months averaged 57.1 degrees, more than 5 degrees above average.  […]The 12-month period starting last June is also the hottest on record.

Meteorologists blamed a persistent weather pattern.

How many years, does a “changing pattern,” make?

NASA Finds 2011 Ninth-Warmest Year on Record NASA.gov — 01.19.12

The global average surface temperature in 2011 was the ninth warmest since 1880, according to NASA scientists. The finding continues a trend in which nine of the 10 warmest years in the modern meteorological record have occurred since the year 2000.
[…]

[Image Source:  buzzbuzzhome.com]

Q. How many ‘broken records’ does it take? … Before people’s perceptions shift enoughto change our ongoing energy course?
A. Far too many, the reality may yet turn out to be.  We all shall see, power-grids willing.

[…]
Many Americans had previously seen climate change as a “nebulous concept” removed from them in time and geography, said National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrationchief Jane Lubchenco.“Many people around the world are beginning to appreciate that climate change is under way, that it’s having consequences that are playing out in real time and, in the United States at least, we are seeing more and more examples of extreme weather and extreme climate-related events,” Lubchenco told a university forum in the Australian capital of Canberra.

“People’s perceptions in the United States at least are in many cases beginning tochange as they experience something first-hand that they at least think is directly attributable to climate change,” she said.
[…]

[First Image Source: Comprehending the Climate Crisis — Bradley J. Dibble, MD]
[Last Image Source:  conservationvalue.blogspot.com — 2007 As a Tipping Point for Climate Change]