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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhen global warming finally gets going, it could last for 200,000 years
By Rachel Feltman
New evidence shows that, while we may not see severe climate change in our lifetimes, global warming could snowball into catastrophe in the distant futureand once the climate has shifted, it might not go back to normal for a very, very long time.
This is from two new studies on climate change this week. The first, published by researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California, paints a disturbing picture of what our oceans will look like if we dont ease up on the emission of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2). Scientists looked at fossils from the so-called greenhouse world that existed about 50 million years ago (where the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere was more than double what it is now) and found that the conditions essentially killed ocean reefs.
Its not hard to see why. At those levels of CO2, the new study shows, ocean temperatures in the tropics reached 95 °F (35 °C), with polar oceans hitting 50 °F, about the temperature of the waters around San Francisco today. Because of those balmy waters, researcher Richard Norris told redOrbit, The rainforests-of-the-sea reefs were replaced by the gravel parking lots of the greenhouse world. With reefs dominated by pebble-like, single-celled organisms instead of nutrient-packed plankton, the ocean couldnt support larger animals, and mass extinction likely occurred. And while we could perhaps be comforted that the effects of the warming were limited mostly to the deep sea (though whos to say what such an event would do to our food supply), what should disturb us is how long it lasted200,000 years. On our current trajectory, well reach that concentration of CO2 in only 80 years.
Meanwhile, a study by University of Hawaii oceanographer Richard Zeebe also suggests that climate change effects could last much longer than we might have thought. Looking at feedback loops (for example, rising temperatures cause snow to melt, which in turn causes temperatures to rise even more because bare ground reflects less sunlight back into space than snow) throughout history, Zeebe found that some may occur very slowly, and on a larger scale. Over time, he found, the Earth can become more vulnerable to greenhouse gases, meaning that it takes smaller increases in CO2 to raise temperatures. That means that climate change could happen quite slowly during our lifetimes, but speed up suddenly at some point in the future, with every temperature increase making the atmosphere more vulnerable.
more
http://qz.com/112886/when-global-warming-finally-gets-going-it-could-last-for-200000-years/
KurtNYC
(14,549 posts)This is like someone standing on the deck of the Titanic with water around their ankles saying "if we don't change course this ship might sink someday in the distant future"
What ??? The North Pole is a lake and the jet stream is majorly f'ed up this year (which I am counting as part of our lifetimes)
Nay
(12,051 posts)have so little ice you can boat on through. WTF is he talking about?
adirondacker
(2,921 posts)along with sea level rise. (We are already living and seeing those)
"On our current trajectory, well reach that concentration of CO2 in only 80 years."
The article is emphasizing the long term effects as 200,000 yrs, rather than say 1000. This may debunk the theory that humans will be capable of surviving since the food chain is significantly dependent on marine life.
hatrack
(59,584 posts)"In our lifetimes . . . " "Distant future . . . "
Jesus Christ, this is like reading an urgent news dispatch distilled from an earth sciences book published in 1956.
Vogon_Glory
(9,117 posts)200,000 years? Weren't we supposed to be heading into another Ice Age (Before the Industrial Revolution started massive man-made processes of carbon emissions)? I'd thought that had things been left alone, the earth's axial tilt and other factors would cause the return of the ice sheets
Nevertheless, I don't like what massive global temperature rises could do to our planet. I'm kinda fond of the way it is now.
Coyotl
(15,262 posts)How severe does it have to be to meet the criteria this article set out? All ice gone?
limpyhobbler
(8,244 posts)Pretty sure it's already taking off.