More than 60 climate scientists have warned that the Earth has as little as three years until the symbolic 1.5C warming limit is breached, if current carbon dioxide emission levels are not curtailed.
Evidence of “unprecedented” changes in weather patterns and extreme weather intensity, coupled with improved scientific estimates, point to a rapidly dwindling “carbon budget”. This carbon budget, according to a new study, leaves us with an allowance of 130 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions before the 1.5C limit is likely to be breached.
Extra heat, accumulated by “human-led warming”, contributes to an energy imbalance in Earth’s atmosphere, leading ultimately to increased ocean temperatures and an acceleration of ice melt. This puts marine life and coastal communities at great risk, whilst also endangering other vulnerable human and animal populations.
If humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions are rapidly curtailed, there is a chance that the limit may never be breached. Furthermore, nascent technologies such as carbon capture (where carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere and trapped underground) hold hope for decreasing long-term warming. However, experts are warning against using carbon capture as a “get-out-of-jail-free card”.
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