{"id":6,"date":"2016-02-08T18:56:12","date_gmt":"2016-02-08T18:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/visionforearth.org\/news\/?p=6"},"modified":"2016-02-08T18:57:48","modified_gmt":"2016-02-08T18:57:48","slug":"the-impacts-of-climate-change-will-be-felt-for-10000-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/visionforearth.org\/news\/2016\/02\/08\/the-impacts-of-climate-change-will-be-felt-for-10000-years\/","title":{"rendered":"The Impacts of Climate Change Will Be Felt For 10,000 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Source: Gizmodo<\/a> | Maddie Stone<\/a> ]<\/p>\n

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\u201cTo avoid the worst impacts [of climate change], we need to start decarbonizing now and get to zero or negative emissions as soon as possible… Reducing emissions alone is not enough.\u201d<\/h2>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"climate-change\"<\/p>\n

If humans don\u2019t stop burning fossil fuels soon, we\u2019ll be paying for it for the next 10,000 years. That\u2019s the conclusion of a perspective paper penned by nearly two dozen leading Earth scientists, which was\u00a0published today<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0Nature Climate Change<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe long-term view sends the chilling message [about] what the real risks and consequences are of the fossil fuel era,\u201d Thomas Stocker, a climate scientist at the University of Bern and a co-author on the new report, said in a statement. \u201cIt will commit us to massive adaptation efforts so that for many, dislocation and migration becomes the only option.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earth scientists typically focus on 21st century climate change impacts when running models and communicating with policymakers. But according to the new report, focusing on such a narrow slice of geologic time has created a false public perception, \u201cthe impression that human-caused climate change is a twenty-first-century problem, and that post-2100 changes are of secondary importance, or may be reversed with emissions reductions at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

To put our predicament in a broader context, the authors looked at the impact of four possible levels of carbon pollution\u20141,280 to 5,120 billion tonnes\u2014emitted between the year 2000 to 2300. (We\u2019ve already put 580 billion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere, at a current rate of 10 billion tonnes per year.) Drawing on paleoclimate datasets that describe the relationship between carbon dioxide, temperature, and sea level over the last 20,000 years, the researchers projected what will happen to global temperatures, sea level, and ice cover over the next 10,000 years.<\/p>\n

While each scenario has carbon emissions falling to zero by 2300, in all cases the impacts of industrial society last for up to 10,000 years. For instance, in the high-emissions scenario, global temperatures rise to 7 degrees Celsius (12.6 degree Fahrenheit) by 2300 AD. By 12,300 AD, the planet has only cooled off a single degree.<\/p>\n

One of the most disturbing aspects of the new report is the long-term march of sea level rise, which is likely to continue unchecked for thousands of years after carbon emissions fall to zero. \u201cThe amount of sea level rise was startling and chilling,\u201d study co-author Peter Clarke of Oregon State University told Gizmodo in an email.<\/p>\n

Last summer, NASA announced last summer that Earth is probably locked into\u00a0at least three feet of sea level rise<\/a>\u00a0over the coming generations. But according to the new report, even an optimistic emissions scenario that limits global warming to two degrees Celsius could ultimately cause global sea levels to rise by 25 meters (82 feet). That\u2019s a mind boggling amount of sea level rise\u2014enough to drown Florida and most of the Eastern seaboard.<\/p>\n

On the other end, under a high-emissions scenario,\u00a0we melt Antarctica\u00a0<\/a>and sea levels rise over 200 feet over the long-term.<\/p>\n

These figures, the authors note, exceed the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change\u2019s sea level predictions by two to three orders of magnitude, \u201creflecting the inappropriateness of that timescale for addressing long-term responses.\u201d<\/p>\n

It might seem foolish to worry about the distant future when so many problems\u2014war, poverty, disease, famine\u2014demand our attention now. But over the long-run, climate change may be the single greatest threat to our survival, not least because it compounds most of the other threats we face.<\/strong> Unless we want to condemn many future generations to living in a harsher world, the authors say we need to end our dependence on fossil fuels immediately.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo avoid the worst impacts [of climate change], we need to start decarbonizing now and get to zero or negative emissions as soon as possible,\u201d Clarke said. \u201cReducing emissions alone is not enough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Source: Gizmodo | Maddie Stone ] \u201cTo avoid the worst impacts [of climate change], we need to start decarbonizing now and get to zero or negative emissions as soon as possible… Reducing emissions alone is not enough.\u201d If humans don\u2019t stop burning fossil fuels soon, we\u2019ll be paying for it for the next 10,000 years…. <\/p>\n

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