With coastal areas preparing for rising sea levels, new research indicates that reducing emissions of certain pollutants can slow down the rising sea level this century.
The four pollutants - black carbon, methane, ozone and hydrofluorocarbons - all cycle through the atmosphere more quickly than carbon dioxide, which lasts for centuries in the troposphere, the part of the atmosphere we live in and breathe. Carbon dioxide is the main culprit in Earth's warming temperatures, which impacts sea level rise both by the expansion of water as it warms and by the melting of glacial ice.
Cutting down air pollutants, which all also act to trap heat in the atmosphere and last anywhere from a week to decade, worldwide by 30 percent to 60 percent over the next several decades would lower predicted sea level rise by 22 percent to 42 percent by 2100, according to the study, published Sunday in the journal Nature Climate Change.
"Without diminishing the importance of reducing carbon dioxide emissions in the long term, this study shows that more immediate gains from shorter-lived pollutants are substantial. Cutting emissions of those gases could give coastal communities more time to prepare for rising sea levels," the authors wrote.
The study was carried out to highlight previous research by the team members in which they had forecast that 50 per cent of the global warming expected by the year 2050 could be prevented by comparatively easy methods as opposed to the hugely difficult and controversial reduction of CO2emissions.
"To avoid potentially dangerous sea level rise, we could cut emissions of short-lived pollutants even if we cannot immediately cut carbon dioxide emissions," NCAR's Aixue Hu, lead study author, said in the statement. "This new research shows that society can significantly reduce the threat to coastal cities if it moves quickly on a handful of pollutants."
Meanwhile, sea levels are expected to rise between 7 inches to 6.6 feet (18 centimeters to 2 meters) this century, according to a 2007 assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The higher tides will bring more coastal flooding and bigger storm surges, the IPCC report warned.
