Climate change predictions making alarming claims on Earth’s future have been challenged by a new study. Suggestions the planet’s surface will warm by 5° Celsius by 2100 are not realistic, according to a team of scientists.
Frightening climate change predictions by the UN would be void if the group from the University of Exeter is correct. Their probe into greenhouse gases pushing up the planet’s temperatures found possible end-of-century outcomes to be only half the range found by others.
“Our study all but rules out very low and very high climate sensitivities,” said lead author Peter Cox.
Despite the findings, the report, published in the journal ‘Nature’ made clear that humans’ actions on climate change will determine the planet’s future. The world must cut methane emissions, CO2 levels and drastically improve energy efficiency.
Researchers and scientists have laid out their predictions – some of which end in Earth’s tragic, fiery end. But the truth is, it is not truly known what will happen. The question is: if the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is doubled, how much will that heat up Earth’s surface?
For decades scientists have pored over this “known unknown” called equilibrium climate sensitivity. Over the last 20 years, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has predicted this to be in the temperature range of 1.5°C to 4.5°C (2.7 to 8.1° Fahrenheit).
But Cox et al disagree. They say it will be 2.2°C to 3.4°C, with a best estimate of 2.8°C. If correct, the end of the world may be further away than suggested.
“These scientists have produced a more accurate estimate of how the planet will respond to increasing CO2 levels,” said Piers Forster, director of the Priestley International Centre for Climate at the University of Leeds.
Forester however said this does not mean we can abandon targets, like those set out in the Paris Accord on climate change. “We will still see significant warming and impacts this century if we don’t increase our ambition to reduce CO2 emissions,” said Forster.
Although this latest study says doomsday is further away, even slight changes will have consequences. Already the world as we know it is changing with storm surges, melting polar ice caps and deadly droughts. A 3.5°C world, scientists say, could pull at the fabric of civilization.
Since industrialization in the early 19th century, CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere have increased by nearly half, from 280 parts per million to 407 parts per million.
By analyzing the responsiveness of short-term changes in temperature to “nudges and bumps” in the climate system, Cox and his team predicted against the devastating increases of 4°C or more by 2100, they warned changes can happen without warning, brought on my Mother Nature.
Rapidly-melting ice sheets or rapid shifts in climate can be brought on by the planet itself.
“There is indeed evidence that the climate system can undergo abrupt changes or ‘tipping points’,” Cox said.
” But the truth is, it is not truly known what will happen. The question is: if the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is doubled, how much will that heat up Earth’s surface? ”
Let’s see: If the CO2 is doubled, green plants will have twice as much fuel to create more foliage. This, in turn, will create more Oxygen for the fleshly animals to breathe. If the global temp goes up, then more areas will be conducive to more plants growing, and using more CO2. Seems to me like God already built in a system to keep things balanced. And if things got a little warmer, we might lose some oceanfront property, but it also would prolly not have been 1 degree when I left for work yesterday.
For the record: It is foolish to believe that mankind is causing any type of global anything. Just look at all the geoengineering going on – millions of tons of crap pumped into our atmosphere, and all they have been able to do is regionally destabilize weather patterns. If you want to believe global warming/cooling/climate change is real, then why don’t you go after the institutions that are spraying aerosols and playing with the ionosphere?