A new study found that global warming will persist in centuries even if humans try fighting it by reducing carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere. Scientists presented the long-term effects of the gas in the atmosphere.
Researchers found that humans need to drastically cut carbon dioxide emissions if we would like to drive the global temperature in its safest level. However, they found that the greenhouse gas component can linger in the atmosphere even for centuries. Having that said, our previous emissions are still up in the air.
The scientists presented the long-term effects of the carbon dioxide emissions by using a computer model. In their presentation, they stopped the emission after releasing 1,800 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. They found that 40 percent are absorbed by the oceans and lands within 20 years, 60 percent in 100 years, and 80 percent in 1,000 years. Therefore, it will take more than a century before we reach the safest level.
In theory, the global temperature should become cooler when the emissions are reduced. However, the researchers have not factored in another theory that the oceans are bound to absorb less heat over time. The gas that the oceans will not be able to absorb will remain in the atmosphere which means there will be no significant drop in global temperature.
The main point is that even if we stop carbon dioxide emissions, the planet will still naturally warm by 0.37C in 400 years. According to the U.N Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we need to maintain the global temperature increase to below 2C to avoid the adverse effects of global warming.
Dr. Thomas Frölicher, lead author of the study from Princeton University, said in an interview with the Telegraph, “If our results are correct, the total carbon emissions required to stay below two degrees of warming would have to be three-quarters of previous estimates, only 750 billion tons instead of 1,000 billion tons of carbon.”
"Thus, limiting the warming to two degrees would require keeping future cumulative carbon emissions below 250 billion tons, only half of the already emitted amount of 500 billion tons."
The study was published in the Nov. 24 issue of Nature Climate Change.
