Irreversible impacts: Rainfall decreases will last for centuries and deserts will spread, says NOAA.
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WASHINGTON DC: Climate change is "largely irreversible" for the next 1,000 years even if carbon dioxide emissions could be abruptly halted, according to a new study led by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The study's authors said there was "no going back" after the report showed that changes in surface temperature, rainfall and sea level are "largely irreversible for more than 1,000 years after CO2 emissions are completely stopped."
No going back
NOAA senior scientist Susan Solomon said the study, published in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that current human choices on carbon dioxide emissions are set to "irreversibly change the planet."
"It has long been known that some of the carbon dioxide emitted by human activities stays in the atmosphere for thousands of years," Solomon said. "But the new study advances the understanding of how this affects the climate system."
Researchers examined the consequences of CO2 building up beyond present-day concentrations of 385 parts per million, and then completely stopping emissions after the peak. Before the industrial age CO2 in Earth's atmosphere amounted to only 280 parts per million.
The study found that CO2 levels are irreversibly impacting climate change, which will contribute to global sea level rise and rainfall changes in certain regions.
Locking-in sea level rise
The authors emphasised that increases in CO2 that occur from 2000 to 2100 are set to "lock in" a sea level rise over the next 1,000 years, so action is needed urgently to prevent that.
Rising sea levels would cause "irreversible commitments to future changes in the geography of the Earth, since many coastal and island features would ultimately become submerged," the study said.
Decreases in rainfall that last for centuries can be expected to have a range of impacts, said the authors. Regional impacts include – but are not limited to – decreased human water supplies, increased fire frequency, ecosystem change and expanded deserts.
Urgent Action Needed!
"...action is needed urgently to prevent [a sea level rise over the next 1,000 years]"
What is the action proposed? How will that action help? Who receives the money to put the proposed action into action, and how much of it will they get to keep for their 'services'? How much were the 'scientists' who performed this study paid, where did that funding come from and what financial interest do the financiers of the study have in a particular finding? Anyone else sick of reading this psuedo-science bologna? I've got a study; clouds are going to turn to bricks and kill people unless you buy cloud-credits from an organization I am not officially affiliated with - if the clouds do not turn to bricks and kill you, it is because I intervened and saved you.
Admission...
Cool, you are hereby admitted to my "people I will deal with for promoting an agenda that denies global warming is a fact, and therefore discourages any attempt to address it" list. Congratulations!