UGC NET Questions (Paper – 1)

A climate tipping point is a critical threshold where a small additional forcing can lead to a qualitative change in the state of a climate subsystem. Examples include rapid ice sheet disintegration or major shifts in ocean circulation. The stem explicitly speaks of small changes triggering large,possibly irreversible shifts,which is the hallmark of tipping points. Therefore tipping is the correct word to complete the term.

Option A:
Safe point would imply a condition where systems are secure and not prone to abrupt change. This is the opposite of the risk laden threshold described in the question.

Option B:
Stable point suggests a state resistant to change,where disturbances are damped rather than amplified. Tipping points by contrast mark transitions away from stability,so this option is not appropriate.

Option C:
Neutral point has no specific meaning in climate science concerning abrupt transitions. It does not convey the idea of crossing a dangerous threshold,so it cannot fill the blank correctly.

Option D:
Tipping points are important in climate risk assessments because crossing them can lead to changes that are hard to reverse on human timescales. This property matches precisely the scenario outlined in the stem.