Carbon Output Must Near Zero To Avert Danger, New Studies Say – washingtonpost.com:
“This is tremendous,” Schmittner said. “I was struck by the fact that the warming continues much longer even after emissions have declined. . . . Our actions right now will have consequences for many, many generations. Not just for a hundred years, but thousands of years.” While natural cycles remove roughly half of human-emitted carbon dioxide from the atmosphere within a hundred years, a significant portion persists for thousands of years. Some of this carbon triggers deep-sea warming, which keeps raising the global average temperature even after emissions halt.
Great. This means things will continue to get rotten even if we start cleaning up our act. Watch for people to start arguing that we shouldn’t clean up our act at all, just close our eyes instead.
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