With this geological mayhem scheduled to take place over the next several thousand years, the decisions that we are making (read: not making) in the present take on a new light. (The Centre for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets has some detailed images available of the areas of the globe most threatened by sea level rise.) Small decisions, huge consequences This is no doubt going to have a devastating impact upon future cities, towns, agricultural areas and freshwater resources located near coastal regions. What’s more, the authors of the Copenhagen Diagnosis warn that sea level rise will continue for many centuries after the eventual stabilisation of global temperature (and therefore beyond the upper limit of this graph too). As a result, the carbon that we are releasing into the atmosphere today is in the process of ‘programming’ a potential 2-5 metres of sea level rise by around the year 2300. The phenomenon of sea level rise resulting from thermal expansion (sea water expands as it warms) and melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica is the perfect illustration of climate inertia in action.Īs may be seen from the graph below, showing estimates from three different models, it takes several centuries for the oceans to fully respond to a warmer climate and altered carbon balance. Only after this extremely long period of forced warming - far more than the history of modern civilisation since the Scientific Revolution - will climate change slowly begin to ‘reverse’ and the planet will at last embark on a cooling trajectory, the report explains.īut long before this ever happens, humanity must prepare itself for an inland retreat and a constant battle against rising seawater that will continue for hundreds and hundreds of years into the future. In other words, whatever the mitigation efforts of future civilisations, climate change is here to stay.
![imagine the world after 100 years imagine the world after 100 years](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_ipyRaGAyyk/maxresdefault.jpg)
The report also states that “even a thousand years after reaching a zero-emission society, temperatures will remain elevated, likely cooling down by only a few tenths of a degree below their peak values.” The carbon that we are releasing into the atmosphere today is in the process of ‘programming’ a potential 2-5 metres of sea level rise by around the year 2300.īut that’s not all.
![imagine the world after 100 years imagine the world after 100 years](https://cnnespanol.cnn.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Brittney-Griner.jpeg)
According to this Copenhagen Diagnosis, regardless of when a peak in global emissions finally occurs, the global temperature cannot be expected to stop rising until several centuries later, due to the extremely long life cycle of C02. Some of this future devastation is briefly discussed in the recently updated Copenhagen Diagnosis - a report authored by 26 leading climate scientists with the aim of updating the world on findings since the publication of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report in 2007.
![imagine the world after 100 years imagine the world after 100 years](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/books/2020/12/24/TELEMMGLPICT000006421316_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqp3ucIXnqKYM-hFrKIkjYZ7UXHYD2Y0KHotu7RfCQsG0.jpeg)
As Archer puts it, “the climatic impacts of releasing fossil fuel C02 to the atmosphere will last longer than Stonehenge, longer than time capsules, longer than nuclear waste”. It will then require thousands and thousands more years for its complete absorption through the natural climate cycle. His conclusion is that even though the majority of C02 emitted from burning a single tonne of coal or oil today will be absorbed over a few centuries by the oceans and vegetation, approximately 25% of it will still be lingering in the atmosphere in 1,000 years, and 10% still remaining and impacting the climate in 100,000 years time. The majority of C02 emitted from burning a single tonne of coal or oil today will be absorbed over a few centuries by the oceans and vegetation, the remaining 25% will still be affecting the climate in 1,000 years.Īccording to scientist David Archer, whose research is often featured in the renowned Nature magazine, the C02 that we are emitting from fossil fuels today will still be affecting the climate in many millenia from now. Regardless of future emission trends, the CO2 footprint from our brief passage on Earth is going to remain in the climate system and impact the well-being of all terrestrial life forms for what could almost be considered an eternity. The shocking truth is that climate change has only just begun. This does not mean that climate change will cease to be a problem in the years lying beyond the upper reach of our most cited climate forecasts. The simple reason for this is that it is impossible to predict with any degree of accuracy just how much greenhouse gases are going to be released in the next few centuries, and just how much this is going to affect the climate.īut don’t be fooled. You may have already noticed that future climate projections used by the international scientific and political communities generally go only as far as the year 2100.
![imagine the world after 100 years imagine the world after 100 years](https://www.heritagedaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/MIGR1-1024x521.png)
But when we say “future”, just how far should we be thinking ahead? As far as 2050? 2100? Or a little bit further, maybe as far as 2500 and beyond? We all know that the carbon legacy of our fossil fuel-based lifestyles is bequeathing a climate crisis to billions of people into the future.