> Before becoming too alarmed, one might want to read about the Holocene Climate Optimum
People are alarmed because a) the compositions of today's atmosphere is much different from 8000 years ago. So very different feedback circle become relevant for the future dynamics of the weather/climate, and we have every reason to expect that no limiting feedback circle kicks in before it does not get a lot worse than today. b) we are already well beyond the Holocene Climate Optimum (see the "2016" marker in the diagram of the Wikipedia page) and the increase of temperature (the derivative of the curve) has no known equivalent in the current Cenozoic period of earth's history.
> Did the lucky people 8000 years ago just barely escape disastrous climate tipping points?
I would rather rephrase the question into: Why did climate stabilized in the Holocene the way it did? and thus avoid "tipping points", because tipping points are not directly observable. They are features of (complex) dynamic systems. It makes only sense to discuss actual tipping points in the context of models that describe those systems.
"the compositions of today's atmosphere is much different from 8000 years ago. So very different feedback circle become relevant for the future dynamics of the weather/climate"
The CO2 level is higher. But the usual "tipping point" dynamics (eg, melting of permafrost) involves just the change in temperature, unrelated to the cause of the warming. And when the "tipping point" is supposed to cause yet more warming because it leads to release of yet more CO2, starting from a higher CO2 level actually reduces the effect, because the warming effect of CO2 is proportional to the logarithm of the CO2 concentration (so releasing X amount of CO2 causes a smaller temperature rise if the CO2 concentration is high than if it is low).
"we are already well beyond the Holocene Climate Optimum"
From the Wikipedia page: "the 2021 IPCC report expressed medium confidence that temperatures in the last decade are higher than they were in the Mid-Holocene Warm Period". That doesn't sound like "already well beyond" is firmly established.
My sentence about "very different feedback circles" indeed does not accurately express my intent. I should have written: "We should expect a very different pattern of feedback circles becoming relevant for the future dynamics of the weather/climate as was important to stop the temperature rise 8000 years ago."
People are alarmed because a) the compositions of today's atmosphere is much different from 8000 years ago. So very different feedback circle become relevant for the future dynamics of the weather/climate, and we have every reason to expect that no limiting feedback circle kicks in before it does not get a lot worse than today. b) we are already well beyond the Holocene Climate Optimum (see the "2016" marker in the diagram of the Wikipedia page) and the increase of temperature (the derivative of the curve) has no known equivalent in the current Cenozoic period of earth's history.
> Did the lucky people 8000 years ago just barely escape disastrous climate tipping points?
I would rather rephrase the question into: Why did climate stabilized in the Holocene the way it did? and thus avoid "tipping points", because tipping points are not directly observable. They are features of (complex) dynamic systems. It makes only sense to discuss actual tipping points in the context of models that describe those systems.