For years, scientists and world leaders have pinned their hopes for the future on a hazy promise — that, even if temperatures soar far above global targets, the planet can eventually be cooled back down.
But a new [study](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08020-9) published Wednesday in the journal Nature shows that blowing past climate goals is more dangerous than it originally seemed. Even if temperatures come back down to 1.5 degrees C, the authors found, many climate impacts — like rising sea levels and thawing permafrost — will persist for centuries to millennia.
It’s not like we can just plop a few trillion tons of ice cubes into our oceans. There is no such thing as “reversal,” only “mitigation.”
dpete88 on
Well this seems rather obvious, we would need another ice age for the glaciers to freeze back up, they’re not going to do it just for funzies
TheresACityInMyMind on
The whole cooking it back down narrative sounded like research Big Oil paid for.
IngenuityBeginning56 on
Maybe there should be a talk about the immortal gasses china releases and the banned cfc’s that China and India are making in record amounts. The immortal gasses are worse the co2 and last 50k years in atmosphere whereas the cfc’s are 10k times worse then co2. Carbon based life needs carbon… co2 isn’t the problem. If you look at plants with high co2 and/or high nitrogen, they have explosive growth. We still are not completely out of the ice age and might be headed back into another one. There have been lots of graphs and charts showing the temperatures from the past and they only like to show a super isolated part of it for dramatic effect.
knowledgeable_diablo on
Considering things roll fairly slowly in nature and cumulate, it would be interesting to see how the past couple of decades of intense deforestation and pollution pumping into the system that is built up and will continue raising temps even if we were to cease all activities dead tomorrow.
Sadly we’ve probably gone right over the tipping point but just down know it yet. Kind of like a ball rolling down a hill, once the inertia has built up, no more pushing is required as it’s rolling under its own steam.
GodrickTheGoof on
Remember how so many people think that this is a hoax and climate change is not real?
9 Comments
For years, scientists and world leaders have pinned their hopes for the future on a hazy promise — that, even if temperatures soar far above global targets, the planet can eventually be cooled back down.
This phenomenon, known as a temperature “[overshoot](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/06/10/climate-action-overshoot-commission/?itid=lk_inline_manual_4),” has been baked into most [climate models](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2022/global-warming-1-5-celsius-scenarios/?itid=lk_inline_manual_4) and plans for the future. In theory, even if global warming reaches the dreaded 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial temperatures, it could be brought back down by pulling carbon dioxide [out of the atmosphere](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2024/05/09/climeworks-mammoth-carbon-capture/?itid=lk_inline_manual_4).
But a new [study](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08020-9) published Wednesday in the journal Nature shows that blowing past climate goals is more dangerous than it originally seemed. Even if temperatures come back down to 1.5 degrees C, the authors found, many climate impacts — like rising sea levels and thawing permafrost — will persist for centuries to millennia.
For example, for every 10 years Earth’s temperature remains 1.5 degrees C above preindustrial levels, the researchers calculated, sea level will rise by about 4 centimeters, or 1.6 inches. Even a small increase in sea-level rise can lead to more dangerous flooding when hurricanes and heavy rains strike. (In Florida, which is currently facing the danger of [Hurricane Milton](https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/10/08/hurricane-milton-path-tracker-map/?itid=lk_inline_manual_8), sea levels are already [8 inches higher](https://climatecenter.fsu.edu/topics/sea-level-rise) than they were in 1950.)
Read more here: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/10/09/overshoot-climate-targets-one-point-five/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/10/09/overshoot-climate-targets-one-point-five/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com)
Easy, Nuclear war.
It’s not like we can just plop a few trillion tons of ice cubes into our oceans. There is no such thing as “reversal,” only “mitigation.”
Well this seems rather obvious, we would need another ice age for the glaciers to freeze back up, they’re not going to do it just for funzies
The whole cooking it back down narrative sounded like research Big Oil paid for.
Maybe there should be a talk about the immortal gasses china releases and the banned cfc’s that China and India are making in record amounts. The immortal gasses are worse the co2 and last 50k years in atmosphere whereas the cfc’s are 10k times worse then co2. Carbon based life needs carbon… co2 isn’t the problem. If you look at plants with high co2 and/or high nitrogen, they have explosive growth. We still are not completely out of the ice age and might be headed back into another one. There have been lots of graphs and charts showing the temperatures from the past and they only like to show a super isolated part of it for dramatic effect.
Considering things roll fairly slowly in nature and cumulate, it would be interesting to see how the past couple of decades of intense deforestation and pollution pumping into the system that is built up and will continue raising temps even if we were to cease all activities dead tomorrow.
Sadly we’ve probably gone right over the tipping point but just down know it yet. Kind of like a ball rolling down a hill, once the inertia has built up, no more pushing is required as it’s rolling under its own steam.
Remember how so many people think that this is a hoax and climate change is not real?
I member… I member😞
Our planet is going to the next Venus or Mars